'Yotes Notes: Arizona Keeps Winning Shootouts

GLENDALE --When it comes to shootouts, the Coyotes have the right stuff.
Arizona upped its record to 4-1 in shootouts this season on Saturday night with a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders at Gila Rivers Arena.
Anthony Duclair and Radim Vrbata scored in the shootout's first and second round, respectively. Meanwhile, goalie Louis Domingue stopped attempts by Cal Clutterbuck and Andrew Ladd to secure the victory.

Vrbata's shootout goal was the 44th of his career, the most in NHL history.
The Coyotes have taken 12 shootout shots this season and scored on seven of them. That's a 58.3 percent success rate, which is tops in the NHL.
"We're not trying to get it to there, but if it gets to there we feel like we have people that can score," Head Coach Dave Tippett said.

• The Coyotes played minus forwards Martin Hanzal and Jordan Martinook. Hanzal suffered a lower-body injury in Friday's game at Anaheim. Martinook suffered an upper-body injury in the same game. Both players are considered day-to-day.
Because they were shorthanded at forward, defenseman Kevin Connauton played right wing on the fourth line.
Connauton, who played forward once before in the NHL while with Columbus, played 7:06, took one shot on goal and delivered three hits.
"I give Kevin Connauton a ton of credit," Tippett said. "He's a left defenseman that played right wing today. He did a heck of a job."
• Goalie Louis Domingue made six of his 27 saves in the five-minute overtime. It was a nice comeback game for Domingue, who allowed four goals in his previous start vs. Calgary on New Year's Eve.
Domingue's lone blunder came in the second period when he launched an errant pass up the middle of the ice that was intercepted by Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk and quickly parlayed into a goal by Alan Quine.
"The play should have been on the wall, but I don't know, I saw an opening there," Domingue said. "... We found a way to bounce back ... Our group played super well in front of me. They blocked a lot of shots and our penalty kill was great tonight."

• Rookie Brendan Perlini scored Arizona's lone regulation goal when he deflected a shot by defenseman Connor Murphy past New York goalie Thomas Greiss at 14:05 of the third period.
"Luckily I got a stick on it and tipped it through his legs," Perlini said with a smile. "A lot of my soccer buddies will watch that and be proud. I megged him."

• Center Alexander Burmistrov, whom Arizona plucked off the waiver wire on Monday, has yet to play for the team as he attempts to secure a work visa.
"It's just a matter of the government is closed on the weekend," Tippett said regarding Burmistrov's absence from Saturday's game.
Burmistrov most likely will make his Coyotes debut on Friday vs. Winnipeg, the team that drafted him in 2010 and then placed him on waivers a week ago.
• Defenseman Tony DeAngelo served the final game of his three-game suspension for physical abuse of officials.
• Before the game, the Coyotes staged a brief ceremony to acknowledge captain Shane Doan recently reaching the 1,500th NHL game milestone and the 400th NHL goal milestone.

Doan's family joined him at center ice for the ceremony, during which he was presented with gifts.
NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Kris King, a former teammate of Doan's who was on the ice when Doan scored his first goal with the Winnipeg Jets in 1995-96, presented Doan with a crystal from the League. The Coyotes organization gave Doan an engraved watch and a commemorative photo collage. And Doan's teammates gave him a Coyotes-themed desktop.

• Arizona won't play a game or practice for the next four days per an NHL mandate. All teams are getting breaks this season to help combat the compressed schedule created by the World Cup of Hockey.
The Coyotes will regroup on Thursday for a practice and then play five games in seven days.
"I think it condenses the schedule too much," Tippett said. "… I'm not sure what the concept is, but it's not safety in my book."