Coyotes head to All-Star break riding season-high 3-game winning streak

GLENDALE, Ariz. — When you’ve got a roster full of baby-faced kids, baby steps are a good way to measure progress. Baby steps are what the Coyotes took with a 3-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday at Gila River Arena.

Lawson Crouse, Alex Burmistrov and Tobias Rieder scored and Mike Smith made 19 saves to record his first shutout this season. Arizona posted its first three-game winning streak of the season in its fifth try and its fifth win in its last six home games to head into the All-Star break with a head of steam and perhaps the best boost of confidence it has experienced all season.

“When you win, it’s a good feeling around the room,” said Coyotes coach Dave Tippett, whose team did not commit a penalty for the seventh time in franchise history.

The shutout was the 31st of Smith’s career and his 20th as a Coyote — one shy of the franchise record held by Nikolai Khabibulin and Ilya Bryzgalov — allowing Smith to head to the All-Star game in style as the team’s lone representative.

“I think it’s just rewarding for everyone and especially the young kids knowing that if we do the right things consistently out there and we’re focusing on the structure of the game, the work ethic and what it takes to win hockey games, I think they’ll gain a lot of confidence from it,” Smith said. “It’s important for their development, it’s important for a lot of things as group pushing forward and trying to get better, and I think it’s a nice time of the season to start winning. I wish we could have done it a lot earlier.”

As has been the script of late, it was a child who led the Coyotes’ charge. Arizona held Vancouver without a shot for the first 28 minutes and 12 seconds of the game, but the Coyotes couldn’t break through until Crouse, a rookie, scored off a hustle play that typified his early tenure in Arizona.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson sent a shot toward the net that Ryan White deflected wide and onto the stick of Crouse. Crouse used all of the reach in his 6-foot-4 frame to score on a wraparound before goalie Ryan Miller could get to the left post.

“I think I even dove a little bit there, too,” Crouse said. “For us to get the first three-game win streak of the year, it’s a great feeling.”

Miller entered the game with a sparkling, 11-1 career record against the Coyotes, a 1.40 goals against average, two shutouts and a .954 save percentage, but the Coyotes got to him again during a four-minute power play in the second period.

Burmistrov picked off a clearing attempt by the Canucks and with Miller out of position after an initial save on Radim Vrbata, the Jan. 2 waiver pick-up scored his first goal as a Coyotes to give him six points in six games with Arizona.

When asked if he was feeling pressure to keep up the point-per-game pace, Burmistrov laughed.

“If you guys are not going to put me under this pressure then I’m not going to feel it,” he said, laughing.

After the Coyotes beat Florida on Monday, Tippett promised there would be motivation for this game as a chance to surpass anything his young group had done this season. After Thursday’s win, he took stock of his youth-laden team.

“We go into the break feeling much better about ourselves than we have at a lot of points in the year,” he said. “We’re playing a better team game, we’re stable in our roles on the team and it’s leading to better results.”

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