Every few moments or so, the visitors’ dressing room door cracked open Thursday and a gale of shrieking glee would escape. The Coyotes won 3-2 in overtime, they took a commanding 3-1 series lead over the Blackhawks and they did not hold back the happy.
It was another game won with multiple crucial cogs missing. It was another game won with goalie Mike Smith turning away gilded chances and then recovering after a gut-twisting late goal skidded in. It was another secondary scorer, Mikkel Boedker, notching a first-rate winner in overtime.
It was another granular effort short on aesthetics but long on results. It was pretty satisfying.
“Coyote ugly, yeah,” Smith said after a 30-save performance. “Guys putting their body on the line, guys getting their stick in there, clearing rebounds and just finding ways to get goals at huge times in games.
“That’s what (Boedker) did again. That has been our motto all season long. The resiliency has been there. We just have to remember it’s not over until we get that fourth one.”
If no one is quite sure how the Coyotes are managing this, consider Boedker couldn’t really explain his second consecutive overtime game-winner.
“Actually, I don’t know how it slid in, but I’m happy it did,” Boedker said. “It was a bobbled puck and I felt like I could get first to it and it bounced over the D-man’s stick. I was partially alone there, there were a lot of sticks and hooks. It went in and it was an amazing feeling.”
Smith remains at the center, booed every time he handled the puck this week but nevertheless frustrating the Hawks at almost every turn.
The Coyotes didn’t have a shot for the first nine-plus minutes but Smith kept them in it, stoning Jonathan Toews on a break in the first period. He later stymied Michael Frolik on a breakaway. And he shook off the two third-period scores to make a couple of overtime saves in traffic seconds before Boedker broke loose.
“I’m an emotional guy,” Smith said. “But I’m finding ways to calm myself down and remember that I have a job to do back there, and that’s stop the puck and give the team a chance.”
Now they have a chance to close it out at home Saturday and advance in the postseason for the first time as a franchise. It’s something to shout about.
“We just want to end it,” captain Shane Doan said. “It has nothing to do with what game. As an organization, we want to find a way to end it.”
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