'Yotes Notes: Smith Provides 'Stellar' Effort

GLENDALE -Mike Smith made a franchise record 58 saves on Saturday night, but his heroic effort wasn't enough for the Coyotes to earn two points against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Gila River Arena.
Thanks to Smith, and goal scorers Radim Vrbata and Shane Doan, Arizona notched one point in a 3-2 shootout loss.
"He was stellar," Head Coach Dave Tippett said of Smith, who made his seventh straight start.

Smith was not in much of a talking mood after the game, but he said fatigue was not a factor in the shootout when he allowed goals to Cam Atkinson and Sam Gagner. He also said he'd be ready to play on Monday when these teams play a rematch at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.
"Frustrating would be a good word (for it), but it's even worse than that right now," Smith said about the loss. "At some point you'd like to see your team move forward and take steps in the right direction to start having a chance to win hockey games. It seems like once we take one step forward we're taking a couple back. It's tough to play like that in this league and expect to come out and win hockey games."
Doan said Smith was the only reason the game was so close.
"They gave us a lesson on how to play, and we have to be way, way, way better than that," Doan said. "That could have easily been a really, really ugly game ... The last two weeks he's been in the zone. That's the only reason we have been getting even remotely close to getting points because of how good he's been. Tonight I think he had 58 (saves). That's like 1980's stuff. It's very impressive."

• Down 1-0, Vrbata scored his goal at 1:03 of the second period with a one-timer from the left circle during a four-on-four segment. It was his team-leading eighth goal of the season and it extended his point streak to five games.
• Tied 1-1, Doan redirected a shot by Michael Stone past Blue Jackets goalie Curtis McElhinney at 11:04 of the second period. It was the 399th goal of Doan's NHL career. When he scores his next goal he will become just the 93rd NHL player to reach the 400-goal milestone.
Doan led the Coyotes with six shots on goal despite playing just 12:02.
• The Coyotes killed all five penalties against the Blue Jackets, the NHL's top-ranked power-play team that entered the game with a 25.9 percent success rate.
"That was one of the bright spots," Tippett said. "It's doing a pretty good job, but you've got to remember Mike (Smith) is cleaning up a lot of messes."
• Tyler Gaudet, whom the Coyotes recalled from the American Hockey League on Friday, centered the fourth line, played 13:57 and won 7 of 9 face-offs.
• With the point, the Coyotes jumped the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference standings, but with 20 points they are well behind the playoff-spot pace.
"We were playing better at times," Tippett said. "Right now there's not enough guys competing hard enough to get things stopped defensively. We're just not doing enough with the puck to allow us to sustain anything. When you do that, when you play the whole game in your end, you're going to get lots of shots. Between that and losing face-offs, you get lots of shots against."