Coyotes keep climbing

Ilya Bryzgalov has six shutouts this season with a .919 save percentage and 2.54 goals-against average.

Adam Proteau
2011-03-21 14:23:00

It is a measure of how tough the Western Conference playoff race is when the Phoenix Coyotes - who have won six of their past 10 games - can be three points behind Pacific Division-leading San Jose, yet be just four points ahead of ninth-place Dallas. But that’s the reality the Yotes face and luckily for them goalie Ilya Bryzgalov appears to be up to the challenge.

With a 32-18-8 record, 2.54 goals-against average, .919 save percentage and six shutouts, Bryzgalov is helping Phoenix keep pace in the standings and also making a good case for a Vezina Trophy as the league’s top netminder. In his past two games, the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent, clearly is the franchise’s most valuable player, has a sparkling 1.51 GAA and .953 save percentage.

The Coyotes will need Bryzgalov to be just as sharp the rest of the regular season, but they’ll also need to reverse a trend that, if followed, could knock them out of the playoff picture: the franchise has a 22-12-5 road record and a less-impressive 17-12-6 mark at Jobing.com Arena, but only has two remaining road games and six at home. Three of those final eight games are against non-playoff teams (St. Louis, Columbus and Colorado), but three games against the fearsome San Jose Sharks could mean the difference between an early golf season and a shot at the Stanley Cup.

THE HOCKEY NEWS POWER RANKINGS
RK.	TEAM	LW	OVERALL	P10	THE SCOOP
1		1	47-17-9	8-2-0	Canucks still rolling, but the real pressure is about to set in
2		2	42-21-10	9-1-0	Alex Ovechkin has 10 game-winning goals for rejuvenated Caps; next best is Alex Semin, with four
3		3	43-21-8	5-3-2	Only three road games remaining in Wings’ final 10 games, leaving them time to rest and focus on post-season
4		4	44-19-8	4-4-2	Flyers still have no definitive No. 1 goalie
5		6	42-23-8	6-2-2	Soaring Sharks have scored at least one power play goal in 12 of their past 15 games
6		5	39-25-8	6-2-2	Injury to Patrick Sharp threatens Hawks’ playoff chances
7		7	41-23-8	5-3-2	Without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Pens have had to take a defensive approach – and with league’s best penalty kill (86.4 percent), that approach is working
8		10	40-26-7	7-3-0	P.K. Subban’s hat trick against Wild was first by a Habs rookie and first for a blueliner since Sheldon Souray in December. 2003
9		12	39-24-11	6-3-1	In nine games in March, netminder Ilya Bryzgalov has allowed just 20 goals
10		9	39-22-10	4-3-3	Bruins are 7-3-3 since acquiring Tomas Kaberle Feb. 18
11		8	40-26-6	5-3-2	Kings haven’t lost more than two in a row since mid-January
12		19	40-27-5	8-2-0	Dan Ellis, Ray Emery giving hot Ducks Jonas Hiller-style goaltending
13		17	38-25-10	6-2-2	In his past two games Pekka Rinne is 2-0-0 with a 1.94 goals-against average and .949 save percentage
14		11	39-22-11	2-4-4	Bolts have scored three or more goals just four times in their past 15 games (5-5-5)
15		16	39-30-4	6-4-0	Blueshirts host Panthers, Sens this week before make-or-break four-game road trip that features showdowns with Bruins, Sabres and Flyers
16		14	38-25-9	5-2-3	Stars haven’t won more than two straight games since five-game win streak in late January
17		15	35-28-9	5-3-2	Only two of Sabres’ five remaining games in March are against teams currently in playoff position
18		13	37-27-10	5-4-1	Second-half surge is starting to fizzle out at precisely the wrong time
19		18	34-34-4	7-3-0	Loss to Sens a serious blow to Devils’ faint playoff hopes
20		23	32-31-10	5-4-1	Once again, Leafs look to be just bad enough to miss post-season and just good enough to stay out of lottery (not that it would behoove them to do so this season)
21		22	33-29-10	4-5-1	At most crucial time of year, no sense of urgency to Canes’ game
22		25	28-33-12	5-1-4	Grabner, Isles setting a good tone for next season
23		20	35-30-8	2-6-2	Wild’s 8-1 humiliation at the hands of Montreal shows this team not ready for next level
24		26	29-33-10	3-4-3	Panthers haven’t quit on Peter DeBoer, but next season will be full of growing pains
25		24	32-31-9	4-6-0	Blues’ awful road record (12-19-5) was their undoing this season
26		21	30-30-12	5-4-1	Depressing end to season for once-promising Thrashers
27		27	33-29-10	2-5-3	Will serious changes be coming for underwhelming Blue Jackets core?
28		28	37-36-9	6-4-0	Sens doing a solid job of playing spoiler – beat desperate Thrashers once, Devils twice in March
29		29	23-39-10	3-5-2	Oilers freefalling to end their abysmal season
30		30	27-36-8	1-8-1	Will GM Greg Sherman and/or coach Joe Sacco pay for Avs’ collapse with their jobs?