February 16 postgame quotes: Arizona

Dave Tippett, on what the last ten minutes of the third period was like:
A bit up and down, you know. We knew going in to the third we wanted to make sure we got our fair share of offensize zone time. We were doing all right and then they come back and got one and we got up again so you feel like you’re playing the same way then you give up another one so it was up and down but I was glad with our couple big goals there. Perlini’s goal is a big goal, Martinook’s shorthanded goal is obviously a big goal so it was a good team effort. We had a lot of guys play really well.

Tippett, on whether the Coyotes are still “scared” to play with a lead:
No we want to play well and we want to win. We’ve got some people there who are really chomping at the bit and some of our young guys — I thought Dvorak was excellent tonight. Obviously Perlini with a couple of goals but Dvorak in the middle was a real big force tonight so it’s a good step forward for us this game.

Tippett, on the first period:
Yeah we wanted to make sure that we started quick. We’ve already had our bye, we know what it feels like coming out of it so we started quick. We gave up a couple chances, a couple grade-A chances in the first there but we created a few and capitalized on one so it was a good start for us.

Tippett, on whether any of the physicality with Smith “crossed the line”:
No, i’s just a hard game all the time in a building like this. That’s the way it goes but Smitty was unbelievable again tonight. He was a rock in there, made big saves for us and gave us a chance to win.

Tippett, on whether their special teams improved since last game:
Yeah. Giving up that one at the end there but power play, Perlini got a nice goal in the first so not bad but I’d like to get through the game with an 0-for on the PK but, you know, that goal didn’t seem to matter much.

Tippett, on whether this win was “meaningful for this group”:
Yeah we capitalized on some chances, they were pushing hard. They had a lot of chances. A lot of pucks at our night, we capitalized on some chances and we were able to push the game along.

Jordan Martinook, on a “meaningful win”:
Yeah sure. I told Walshy it kind of shows where we’ve come. At the beginning of the year, we give up a goal there to make it 2-1 and we tighten right up and it just shows how our group is kind of coming together. They score and then we score right back, and then obviously it kept kind of going that way but we wish it was tighter but at the end of the day we came out with two points and that’s what we wanted to do.

Martinook, on the “crazy” end to the third period:
Yeah obviously we wish it was still 2-0 but it’s a crazy game sometimes. I don’t know, I don’t know what to say. We were trying to play 1-0 hockey but it ended up 5-3 so two points, that’s what we’re going to take out of that.

Martinook, on whether special teams have improved:
Yeah. i thought our power play moved it pretty good. I don’t know, did we get a power play goal? [Reporter: Yeah.] Yeah we did so, yeah there we go. Other than the kill and we’ve all kind of talked about it already and we knew what we did wrong so if you’re going to learn, obviously we don’t want to give up a goal, but that’s kind of learning curve that we can’t let happen again and we still won.

Martinook, on his goal:
Yeah I didn’t want to try to take it to the net and get caught down there so used Martinez as a screen a bit and found a way in.

Brendan Perlini, on what it took to “persevere in the end”:
Good character by the guys. We showed every time obviously they scored, we scored right after so that’s all credit to the guys and working hard and battling and not wanting to give in. [Reporter: That’s growth by this team, right?] A hundred percent. I was saying earlier to someone else, you know, we’ve kind of got this attitude where we want to get a lot better everyday and I know myself personally I’ve always tried to kind of have that and improve and work on little things every game and in practice, whatever. Everyone has that so that’s the main thing. I feel like we’re improving a bit and we’ve just got to take it game by game and hopefully get better as the season goes along.

Perlini, on his goal in the third period:
Yup, I had a similar one second period to that and kind of passed it off early so saw my opening and tried to take it and go with speed and capitalize.

Perlini, on Smith’s performance;

Yeah he was the reason it was what it was in the third as far as us being in it anyways. I think it could’ve been, if he wasn’t in the net, 10-2 or something like that so he played unbelievable and he’s been doing that all year long so it’s nothing new. It’s all credit to him, he’s obviously an unbelievable goalie.

Mike Smith, on the win:
… we found a way to win. We found a way to win and that’s why you play. I think we obviously have got to learn to play with a lead but if you have the lead more than you learn more about it so I think we’ve been doing that a little bit more so sooner or later we’ll figure it out.

Smith, on the last ten minutes of the game:
It was a little tiring. That’s that team, you know what to expect when you play LA in this building and we knew a 2-0 lead wasn’t going to be a pushover so I think just tried to be solid back there and make saves and the boys battled hard in front of me. We beat a good team in their rink, we’ll take it.

Smith, on whether the physicality was anything more than normal:
No we just talked about it being a man’s game out there. They’re a veteran team that have a lot of big forwards and pretty solid D and if you’re going to be engaged in that game you’re going to have to be, you know, be a man about it. We competed hard, we battled hard, but I think we’d like to play with the puck a little more when we’re ahead.