The Phoenix Coyotes lose to the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 ending their six game road winning streak.

With the depleted blue line from the Avalanche, the Coyotes needed to forecheck, put the puck behind the defense, cycle the puck down low with a defenseman in the high slot, and be tenacious and aggressive, essentially everything they were in the past four weeks.

For the first period and a half, the Coyotes were outmaneuvered by the top forwards of the Avalanche: Paul Stastny, Joe Sakic, Milan Hejduk, Tyler Arnason, and Andrew Burnette.

Plus, the Avalanche were able to get a little luck go their way from the goaltender Peter Budaj and his assistants Tom and Mary Post. Yanic Perreault hit the iron once and Ed Jovanovski hit the iron twice in what could have been quick goals for the Coyotes.

Georges Laraque scored his fifth goal of the season on a wrap around chance with help from Oleg Saprykin and Yanic Perreault that tied the game at one apiece in the second period.

The Avalanche forwards brought the team back with goals from Hejduk, Burnette, and Stastny (his second of the night) in the second period and in the first half of the third period. The score was 4-1 Avalanche.

The OMG line, reunited in the last game against the St. Louis Blues, were able to manufacture a goal late in the third period, which then sparked a goal from Shane Doan, bringing the Coyotes closer to tying the game 4-3.

However, it was too little too late.

Jeremy Roenick and Kevyn Adams played hard as well as Ladislav Nagy and Shane Doan. The defense of the Coyotes had an uncharacteristically difficult night by giving up too many turnovers in their zone and giving too much time and space to the Avalanche forwards.

The sense of urgency did not appear for the Coyotes until the second half of the third period. In addition, the power play needed some juice as it went empty going 0-for-6.

Getting points in the next two games will be extremely important albeit tough to do. The Coyotes face the San Jose Sharks again in San Jose Thursday night and the Los Angeles Kings in L.A. on Saturday night before the All-Star break.

When Josh Gratton is out of the lineup, the Coyotes are now 4-15-1.

Original post by PB and software by Elliott Back

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