Coyotes update; Aucoin status uncertain

Having flown home after yesterday’s game, the Phoenix Coyotes held practice today at Jobing.com Arena. Most of the players skated, but not defenseman Adrian Aucoin, who returned to play in Game 4 after he had missed the first three games of the series. Asked about Aucoin’s status for Game 5, coach Dave Tippett told reporters, “We’ll see where he is. He wasn’t on the ice today. We had three or four guys stay off today. We’ll see how he came out of it. Every game, there’s some nicks that you have to deal with. We’ll see where he’s at tomorrow morning.’’

It was, no doubt, the happiest the Coyotes have ever been to practice. The alternative would have been cleaning out their lockers after a Game 4 loss, but that didn’t happen, and now the Coyotes have a chance to make the series very interesting by winning on home ice tomorrow night.

TIPPETT: “Well, our spirits are certainly better when you win a game. Your back’s against the wall still. There’s an awful lot to be accomplished here. We recognize it’s a hard mountain to climb. But our guys, we got the first one, we got to come home and, like I say, use the energy of our building, get ourselves in position to take another one. Then we’ll just keep going from there. Nobody’s looking past tomorrow’s game. We have to continue to get better if we’re going to have a chance to get ourselves back in the series. That’s all we’re thinking.’’