{coyotes} COYOTES (20-30-7) at AVALANCHE (23-22-11)

Sunday 15 February 2015

{coyotes} COYOTES (20-30-7) at AVALANCHE (23-22-11)

Monday, February 16, 2015

9:00 PM ET

COYOTES (20-30-7) at AVALANCHE (23-22-11)

TV: FS-A, ALT

Season series: The Colorado Avalanche rallied from a three-goal deficit to defeat the Arizona Coyotes in overtime in their first game of the season. Gabriel Landeskog scored twice and Danny Briere had the winner in overtime after Arizona scored three times in the first period. Calvin Pickard relieved Reto Berra and stopped all 25 shots he faced to help the comeback.

Coyotes team scope: Since March 4, 2010, Arizona is 11-2-4 against Colorado, but the Coyotes have lost 11 of their past 15 games in 2014-15 against the rest of the NHL. Arizona is out of the playoff chase and may begin selling off veteran players in the next couple of weeks, so the rest of the season could be a chance for young talent to secure more prominent roles. Lucas Lessio has played at least 14:08 in the past three games. He hadn't played that much since Jan. 15. Defenseman Connor Murphy has played more than 19 minutes in two of his past three games.

Avalanche team scope: Colorado has 12 more points than any of the other three last-place teams, but such is life in the rugged Central Division. The Avalanche are eight points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, but need to climb past four teams and with 16 non-shootout wins they would almost certainly need to finish in eighth outright because any of the other clubs in contention would hold the tiebreaker. Two of the biggest reasons for the downturn from last season are the reversal of fortunes in one-goal games (lost 20 of 33 this season after winning 28 of 40 in 2013-14), and the power play has plummeted from fifth in 2013-14 to 29th this season.

Team Stats