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Coyotes 3, FLAMES 1
Adams leads Coyotes over Flames
CALGARY (CP) -- The Calgary Flames playoff hopes were reduced to a flicker Friday night thanks to Phoenix goaltender Sean Burke.
Greg Adams scored twice and Jeremy Roenick notched his 12th winning goal of the season as Phoenix beat Calgary 3-1, despite being outshot 31-12.
"I don't think we're 100 per cent satisfied with our performance but we did get the two points and at this time of year, you can critique your game all you want but the key is to get those two points," said Burke. "You'd rather win ugly right now than play a great game and get nothing."
After seven straight losses dropped the Coyotes to eighth spot in the Western Conference, Phoenix (37-33-7-3) moves into sole possession of sixth spot on the strength of back-to-back wins. Two points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers, Phoenix wraps up a five-game road trip in Edmonton tonight.
The loss for Calgary (30-38-9-5), its fifth straight defeat on home ice, leaves the Flames seven points back of the San Jose Sharks with just five games left.
"Frustrating is definitely the key word in summing up tonight's game," Flames defenceman Derek Morris said. "We have five games left and now we've got to win them all, get our 10 points, and see what happens."
The pivotal point in the game came early in the second period.
Less than a minute after Burke preserved Phoenix's 1-0 lead stopping Jarome Iginla on a two-on-one, Roenick put Phoenix ahead 2-0 capitalizing on a costly Flames turnover.
The culprit on the Roenick goal was Calgary rookie left-winger Sergei Varlamov. Playing his second career NHL game, Varlamov's short pass attempt as he moved out of the Flames end was intercepted by Roenick who broke in alone on Brathwaite beating the Calgary goaltender on a clever deke.
Roenick is second in the NHL in winning goals, one behind the Florida Panthers' Pavel Bure.
"We've definitely made it hard for ourselves but this game is a step we really, really needed to get us a little bit of breathing room," said Roenick. "If we can get one more big win than I think we'll settle in and return to playing how we're capable of playing."
Phoenix was once again playing without captain Keith Tkachuk. Tkachuk was out of the lineup with a tender right ankle, the same injury that caused him to miss 16 games from Feb. 14 to Mar. 17.
After Burke lost his shutout bid at 7:33 of the third period on Sergei Krivokrasov's first goal as a member of the Flames, Adams iced the victory with his second of the game into an empty net with 43 seconds left.
Phoenix opened the scoring at 10:09 of the first period on its first shot of the game when Adams broke over the Flames blue-line and ripped a slapshot just inside the goal-post.
With 12 players already injured and out of the Flames lineup, Calgary lost Jason Wiemer in the second period with a leg injury.
Notes: Brathwaite's first save of the game didn't come until the
15-minute mark of the first period. With the Buffalo Sabres scoring on both of its third period shots against Grant Fuhr in Calgary's last home game, that means Calgary went over 35 minutes of game action without recording a save. . . Calgary's Phil Housley returned to the Flames line-up after missing three games due to the death of his mother.
Summary
NHL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
PHOENIX 1 1 1 3
CALGARY 0 0 1 1 FINAL
GOAL SCORING:
1ST PRD: PHO - GREG ADAMS 17 (TRAVIS GREEN, SHANE DOAN) 10:09
2ND PRD: PHO - JEREMY ROENICK 34 (UNASSISTED) 6:47
3RD PRD: CGY - SERGEI KRIVOKRASOV 10 (JEFF SHANTZ, DEREK MORRIS) 7:22
PHO - (EN) GREG ADAMS 18 (SHANE DOAN, JUHA YLONEN) 19:17
POWER-PLAY CONVERSIONS: PHO - 0 OF 3, CGY - 0 OF 3.
SHOTS ON GOAL: 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
PHO 3 4 5 12
CGY 8 8 15 31
GOALIES: PHO - SEAN BURKE
CGY - FRED BRATHWAITE
OFFICIALS: REF - KOHARSKI, ROBERTS
LIN - GIBBS, LAZAROWICH
ATT: 15,656
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