CALGARY — It’s clear that Christian Dvorak has shaken off the rookie jitters.
Arizona’s centre had two goals and an assist and Mike Smith made 36 saves for his 32nd career shutout as the surging Arizona Coyotes won 5-0 over the Calgary Flames on Monday night.
Dvorak’s third multi-point effort in the last five games gives the rookie five goals and seven points over that span.
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“The first 20 or 30 games, he’s just happy to be in the league,” said Arizona head coach Dave Tippett. “As he recognizes that he’s capable of playing here and he’s doing things right and he’s not in awe of people anymore. He just goes out there and plays and he’s a really good player.”
This hot stretch comes after the former London Knights star — linemates last year with Toronto’s Mitch Marner and Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk — had just 13 points in the season’s first 45 games.
“I’m definitely feeling more comfortable and more confident as the season has gone on,” said Dvorak. “Gelling with my linemates, forming some chemistry and we’ve been playing pretty well as of late.”
Dvorak’s eighth goal of the season came 2:39 into the second period, whipping a shot over Chad Johnson’s glove, was the first of three for Arizona in the second period.
Justin Martinook made it 3-0 less than 90 seconds later and at 11:08 on an odd-man rush, Dvorak showcased his passing ability. Carrying the puck down the wing, he found Luke Schenn in the high slot and as the defenceman cut to the net, he had the puck glance in off Ryan White‘s skate.
“If the shot is there, I’ll shoot it. If the pass is there, I’ll pass it. I’m just trying to make some plays out there while making sure I’m responsible defensively as well,” said Dvorak, a second round pick in 2014.
Smith was busiest in the first period when the Coyotes were outshot 19-9 yet emerged with a 1-0 lead on a goal by Martin Hanzal.
“We were able to weather that storm and get out of that first period ahead,” said Tippett. “We hadn’t played our best hockey yet so it was definitely nice to come back in the second, get our feet moving, make some plays.”
Arizona (19-28-7) has points in four straight (3-0-1) and are 6-2-1 in their last nine — and those two regulation-time losses were both one-goal games.
Calgary (28-26-3), coming off its five-day bye week, had been on a roll, winning four of its previous five heading into the time off.
“We weren’t sharp,” said Calgary coach Glen Gulutzan. “It was more execution. Some pucks missed the net, were shot over the net.”
Shortly after Gulutzan replaced Johnson with Brian Elliott to start the third period, Dvorak adding his second at 2:12.
“We’re either really good or really bad. There’s no middle right now,” said Johnson, who had 19 stops to fall to 17-13-1.
Elliott stopped eight of nine.
Smith improves to 14-15-6 and earns his second shutout of the season. It was his 21st shutout with the Coyotes, tying him with Nikolai Khabibulin and Ilya Bryzgalov for the franchise lead.
“Guys have embraced it,” said Smith on the role of spoiler.”Guys have grasped onto it that we want to continue to improve, continue to get better and we want to be a caliber of the teams we’re playing against. “
Notes: Tippett won game No. 542, which ties him with Billy Reay for 19th on the NHL’s all-time list… Calgary defenceman TJ Brodie was a game-worst minus-4… Teams are now 3-8-1 in the first game back after their bye week… The Flames continue to trail Los Angeles by one point for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Calgary plays the Kings four times over the final 19 games.
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