Shane Doan hits 25-goal mark as Coyotes sink Sharks

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Shane Doan may be Coyotes Nation’s favorite son, but it doesn’t sound like he’s getting much respect in the Arizona locker room.

“Marty (Jordan) Martinook is adamant that I’ve only scored 10 legit goals this year,” Doan said after his centering attempt from the corner banked off San Jose goalie Martin Jones and into the net with 1:31 remaining to provide the game-winner in the Coyotes’ 3-1 win over the Sharks on Thursday at Gila River Arena. “I haven’t scored too many pretty ones this year.”

Pretty or not, Doan reached the 25-goal plateau for the eighth time in his career and 18 of those goals have come in his 31 home games played (he missed four due to a groin injury).

“It’s not how you score them, it’s how many,” coach Dave Tippett said, smiling. “If it was that easy to score 25 goals you’d see a lot more guys do it.

“There’s a lot of pucks around the front of the net, there’s a lot of quick shots at the net. He’s got some bounces this year but 25 is 25. You can’t take it away from him.”

Doan became just the second Coyotes player to reach the 25-goal mark since 2009 (Radim Vrbata had 35 in 2011-12). Doan needs six goals over the final 12 games of the season to match his career-high of 31, which he scored in the 2008-09 season when he played all 82 games. Had he not missed nine games this season with the aforementioned injury, he might have broken that mark at the ripe age of 39, but Doan had another formula for reaching the record.

“We need to play more at home,” Doan said.

The Coyotes only have six more games at Gila River Arena and they still trail the Colorado Avalanche by seven points for the Western Conference’s final wild card spot so the odds are long for that pair of objectives, but goaltender Mike Smith’s return from an abdominal injury is going as well as anyone could have hoped.

Smith got the benefit of a pair of calls when two San Jose goals were disallowed — one in the first period for an obvious offside and one in the second period when officials ruled that Sharks forward Chris Tierney used a deliberate kicking motion to boot a rebound past Smith. Buoyed by those calls, Smith stopped 27 of 28 shots and has stopped 71 of 72 in the two games since he returned.

“It wasn’t as challenging (as the first game),” Smith said. “There were still some times where it was a little uncomfortable, but I definitely felt better than I did (in Edmonton) so that’s a good sign.”

The Coyotes play back-to-back games this weekend so it’s likely that Smith will split those two games with Louis Domingue. If Tippett is playing the percentages, it’s probable that Domingue will face Tampa Bay on Saturday at home while Smith faces the Sharks again on Sunday in San Jose. In his career, Smith is 10-5-2 against the Sharks with a .941 save percentage. That is his best mark against any team in the NHL.

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