Coyotes Topple Kings in Seven

[Parker]

The atmosphere was electric for the capacity crowd at Glendale Arena last night as the Phoenix Coyotes put an end to the Los Angeles Kings' season with a hard-fought 4-2 victory in Game 7 of their Western Conference semifinal series.

"LA pushed us to our limits, no question," agreed captain Shane Doan when asked about the challenge posed by a dynamic and resilient Kings lineup fresh off a six-game victory over the defending Cup champion San Jose Sharks, and who took a 2-0 series lead on Phoenix's home ice.

"We might have been a little overconfident after we swept Columbus. We got kind of sloppy at the start."

It was reported that Doan and alternate captain Ed Jovanovski called a players-only meeting after the 6-2 loss.

"It, uh, got pretty loud in there," admitted defenceman Mark Alt. "They don't call him [Doan] Captain Coyote for nothing. He gave us exactly what we needed: a wakeup call. We've got a great team, a ton of talent here, but hockey's a team sport and if we don't stick to our game plan, we've already lost. When we do play our game, though, we can stand toe-to-toe against any team in the league."

"Shane was harder on himself than he was on any of us," remarked power forward Vladislav Kartayev. "He wasn't producing and it was really bothering him. You could tell he wanted to carry the whole team on his back; that's just the kind of man he is. After that meeting, we all started playing much better hockey."

Doan himself was a changed man beginning in Game 3 - after being held off the scoresheet in Phoenix's first two losses, he then put up five goals and nine points in the next five games, earning him Player of the Week honors. Doan's linemate Jordan Staal also began to find the net more consistently with four goals in the final five games of the series. With Doan's line reinvigorated, the pressure was off the supporting cast, and they continued their strong postseason play: 2010 draftees Brett Connolly (4G, 7A) and "Bazooka" Joe Basaraba (3G 5A) have had impressive performances, sniper Mikkel Boedker added four goals and nine points of his own, and Chris "Professor" Higgins repsonded to increased icetime while replacing the injured Lauri Korpikoski by putting up three goals and eleven points.

Looking ahead, the 2012-13 EHEC playoffs will feature two rare conference finals series comprised exclusively of division winners. Pacific Division leader Phoenix will face the Northwest champion Calgary Flames, while the Montreal Canadiens will have their work cut out for them against the Pittsburgh Penguins, a squad that has yet to lose a playoff game this season, following up their President's Trophy win with two straight series sweeps over Florida and Carolina.