{coyotes} Penguins, Coyotes seek to end lengthy skids

ESPN Fantasy Baseball / Yahoo Fantasy Baseball

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Two teams struggling to score goals will look to snap extended losing streaks here Saturday.

But while the Pittsburgh Penguins have been struggling offensively for a week, the Arizona Coyotes have been scrounging for goals for more than a month.

The Penguins come to Arizona having been outscored 11-2 in four straight losses, including a 2-1 loss against the Dallas Stars on Thursday. It's the first time the Penguins have lost four consecutive games in regulation since the 2011-12 season. They are now even with the Washington Capitals at 88 points in the battle for third place in the Metropolitan Division, although they hold a game in hand.

For Arizona, three points up on the Buffalo Sabres at the bottom of the NHL standings, the struggles are on a much larger scale. The Coyotes have lost 16 of the past 17 games thanks to an offense that has produced 22 goals in that span.

The Coyotes have held some of the League's top teams down offensively of late, limiting the Nashville Predators, Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks to two goals each during a March stretch that sees them play nine of the first 10 at home. They face another of those teams Saturday and the prospect of facing an offensive force in Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby.

"He's a man among boys out there," said Coyotes center Joe Vitale, who spent parts of four seasons with Crosby and the Penguins before signing as a free agent with the Coyotes last summer.

"The way best to explain it, I tell people when we're out there messing around before practice at 20 percent, half speed, doing moves and doing crazy shots at 30 percent, can you imagine just being able to do that at 100-percent speed? That's kind of him. He just does everything at full speed that you can do at half speed. He's a special player."

The Penguins hope to have center Evgeni Malkin, who has missed the past three games with a lower-body injury, and forward Patric Hornqvist (undisclosed injury) back in the lineup soon. Pittsburgh didn't practice Friday and didn't skate Saturday morning. Malkin and Hornqvist have scored a combined 51 goals this season and their offensive punch has been missed.

The Coyotes could be without forward Martin Erat, who sustained an upper-body injury in the 5-2 loss against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday when he fell and barrelled hard into the boards in the first period. Erat tried to continue playing but left the game for good in the second.

Erat didn't practice Friday, but coach Dave Tippett didn't rule him out. The Coyotes, who didn't skate, have just 12 forwards on their roster so they recalled center Justin Hodgman on an emergency basis from the Portland Pirates of the American Hockey League.

Goalie Mike Smith is expected to start after Louis Domingue played against the Avalanche.

Here are the projected lineups:

PENGUINS

Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - David Perron

Beau Bennett - Brandon Sutter - Blake Comeau

Daniel Winnik - Nick Spaling - Steve Downie

Andrew Ebbett - Maxim Lapierre - Craig Adams

Paul Martin - Kris Letang

Christian Ehrhoff - Ben Lovejoy

Rob Scuderi - Ian Cole

Marc-Andre Fleury

Thomas Greiss

Scratched: None

Injured: Pascal Dupuis (blood clots), Patric Hornqvist (undisclosed), Evgeni Malkin (lower body), Olli Maatta (upper body)

COYOTES

Sam Gagner – Justin Hodgman – Shane Doan

Tobias Rieder – Mark Arcobello – David Moss

Lauri Korpikoski – Kyle Chipchura – Craig Cunningham

Tye McGinn – Joe Vitale – B.J. Crombeen

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Michael Stone

John Moore – Connor Murphy

Klas Dahlbeck – Andrew Campbell

Mike Smith

Louis Domingue

Scratched: Brandon Gormley

Injured: Mikkel Boedker (upper body), Martin Hanzal (upper body)

Status report: If Erat is unable to play, the Coyotes will likely shift Gagner from center to the wing and put Hodgman between him and Doan.

Who's hot: Ekman-Larsson had two goals and a career-high nine shots against Colorado. He leads all NHL defenseman with 19 goals. He is four shy of the franchise record for goals by a defenseman of 23, held by Phil Housley (accomplished twice). … Crosby needs three goals for 300 in his career. He has two goals and six points in four games at Gila River Arena.

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