Preview
Coyotes-Avalanche Preview
Associated Press

If this road trip goes nearly as well as their last one, the Phoenix Coyotes could end up recording the longest road winning streak in franchise history.

They will notch their longest one since the club relocated to Arizona if they can win on the Colorado Avalanche's home ice on Wednesday for the first time in more than six years.

The Coyotes' current run of six consecutive road victories is their longest since winning six in a row from Oct. 26-Nov. 28, 1998, during the team's third season in Phoenix after moving from Winnipeg. The franchise record is eight straight, accomplished during the 1984-85 season.

The current streak includes a five-game road trip earlier this month that saw the Coyotes (21-22-2) give up more than two goals only once as they won at Washington, Carolina, Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas.

This four-game trip keeps them out West, with games at San Jose and Los Angeles before ending back in Colorado.

Phoenix, though, has lost five straight at the Pepsi Center and hasn't won there in nine games (eight losses, one tie) since Oct. 30, 2000. The Coyotes have lost six in a row overall in this series.

The Avalanche (22-20-3), however, have been struggling at home lately, losing four of five while allowing 22 goals. They've dropped three of four overall.

The Coyotes had won seven straight overall entering a three-game homestand last week, but lost the first two before beating St. Louis 5-4 in a shootout on Monday.

"Obviously, coming off the road winning seven, you want to do a little bit more than win one at home," Phoenix captain Shane Doan said. "We did our best to keep that one interesting and took the long way around to win it."

Doan, who had two assists and converted his shootout attempt on Monday, has eight goals and seven assists in his last 10 games. Ladislav Nagy, who scored the winning goal in the shootout, leads the Coyotes with 35 points and has five assists in his last four outings.

Phoenix has scored at least one power-play in six consecutive games, going 10-for-37 in that span. Defenseman Ed Jovanovski scored two of the team's three power-play goals on Monday and assisted on the other.

The Avalanche have been one of the league's worst penalty-killing teams, allowing opponents to score 21.3 percent of the time. They gave up three power-play goals on Monday in a 3-1 loss at San Jose.

Center Joe Sakic, who has 19 goals and a team-leading 49 points, scored Colorado's only goal.

Peter Budaj, who finished with 39 saves, allowed two goals in the first period while the Avalanche were outshot 21-10.

"Peter was the only chance to keep the score from becoming real ugly," Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said. "That first 20 minutes was pretty scary."

Budaj has won all three starts he's made against the Coyotes, posting a 1.70 goals-against average.




SCHEDULE

HOME
AWAY
PROMOTIONAL

STANDINGS

WESTERN CONFERENCE
  TEAM GP W L OT GF GA PTS
1 p - CHI 48 36 7 5 155 102 77
2 y - ANA 48 30 12 6 140 118 66
3 y - VAN 48 26 15 7 127 121 59
4 x - STL 48 29 17 2 129 115 60
5 x - LAK 48 27 16 5 133 118 59
6 x - SJS 48 25 16 7 124 116 57
7 x - DET 48 24 16 8 124 115 56
8 x - MIN 48 26 19 3 122 127 55
9 CBJ 48 24 17 7 120 119 55
10 PHX 48 21 18 9 125 131 51
11 DAL 48 22 22 4 130 142 48
12 EDM 48 19 22 7 125 134 45
13 CGY 48 19 25 4 128 160 42
14 NSH 48 16 23 9 111 139 41
15 COL 48 16 25 7 116 152 39

STATS

2012-2013 REGULAR SEASON
SKATERS: GP G A +/- Pts
P. Parenteau 48 18 25 -11 43
M. Duchene 47 17 26 -12 43
P. Stastny 40 9 15 -7 24
J. McGinn 47 11 11 -13 22
J. Mitchell 47 10 10 5 20
R. O'Reilly 29 6 14 -3 20
G. Landeskog 36 9 8 -4 17
T. Barrie 32 2 11 -11 13
C. McLeod 48 8 4 4 12
M. Hejduk 29 4 7 -7 11
 
GOALIES: W L OT Sv% GAA
J. Giguere 5 4 4 .908 2.84
S. Varlamov 11 21 3 .903 3.02
Avs Alert
coloradoavalanche.com is the official Web site of the Colorado Avalanche. The Colorado Avalanche and coloradoavalanche.com are trademarks of the Colorado Avalanche Hockey Team, Inc.  NHL, the NHL Shield, the word mark and image of the Stanley Cup and NHL Conference logos are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. All NHL logos and marks and NHL team logos and marks as well as all other proprietary materials depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective NHL teams and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. Copyright © 1999-2013 Colorado Avalanche Hockey Team, Inc. and the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved.