head coach: Jim Schoenfeld

roster: C - Jeremy Roenick, Craig Janney, Cliff Ronning, Bob Corkum, Mike Stapleton, Juha Ylonen. LW - Keith Tkachuk, Darrin Shannon, Jim McKenzie. RW - Rick Tocchet, Dallas Drake, Mike Gartner, Brad Isbister, Jocelyn Lemieux. D - Teppo Numminen, Oleg Tverdovsky, John Slaney, Norm Maciver, Jim Johnson, Murray Baron, Deron Quint, Jason Doig, Jay More, Michel Petit, Sean Gagnon. G - Nikolai Khabibulin, Jimmy Waite, Scott Langkow.

injuries: John Slaney, d (fractured thumb, maybe a week); Jimmy Waite, g (thumb, day-to-day); Murray Baron, d (torn triceps muscle Nov. 17, indefinite); Jim Johnson, d (concussion Nov. 11, day-to-day); Darcy Wakaluk, g (knee surgery Sept. 17, 2-3 months -- placed on injured reserve Sept. 30).

transactions: Rick Tocchet, rw, was suspended two games by the NHL. Recalled Sean Gagnon, d, from Springfield (AHL).

standings:

Western Conference - Central Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
Dallas       51  32  11   8    72  155  103
Detroit      52  29  13  10    68  160  117
St Louis     52  26  19   7    59  151  130
Phoenix      50  22  20   8    52  141  137
Chicago      50  20  21   9    49  121  117
Toronto      48  17  24   7    41  117  138

game results:

1/20 at Edmonton      L 6-2
1/21 at Vancouver     W 6-1
1/24 Edmonton         L 5-2
1/26 Vancouver        W 4-2

team news:

by Michael Dell, Phoenix Correspondent

The Phoenix Coyotes had a wacky schedule right after the All-Star Break. They opened with two games on the road; first in Edmonton and then in Vancouver. Then it was back home for two games against, you guessed it, Edmonton and Vancouver. Whenever you play a team twice in such a short span of time, there's always the chance that things could get ugly. And, oh, did they get ugly...

It all started in Edmonton on January 20. At 12:21 of the first period, Rick Tocchet tried to rub out Ryan Smyth as the Edmonton winger was peeling off the boards with the puck. Smyth side- stepped the initial check, but Tocchet stuck out his knee and sent the Oil youngster crumpling to the ice in pain. That brought Oiler captain Kelly Buchberger over and he started up with Tocchet. When things were calmed down, Buchberger got four minutes for roughing, Tocchet received two for roughing and five for kneeing, and Smyth got a torn ligament in his left knee. He was later evaluated and is expected to miss six to eight weeks. Yeah, that'll suck.

Just 20 seconds after the hit of Smyth, the Coyotes took the lead when Keith Tkachuk potted his 30th of the season. The Oilers bounced back, tho', with goals from Dean McAmmond and Boris Mironov to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. The Oil came out in the second and once again outscored Tkachuk 2-1, getting goals from Roman Hamrlik and Dougie Weight. Edmonton would add two more goals in the third to make the final 6-2. But the hit on Smyth was clearly the major story in this one.

At 14:22 of the third, with the game decided, Edmonton's Greg DeVries and Tocchet squared off. A message had to be sent. That's just hockey.

After the game, Tocchet said that his hit on Smyth was entirely unintentional and he in no way meant to injure the young star. And you gotta believe the guy. Tocchet is as real as it gets. If he wanted to take Smyth out, he would have done it old school with his fists. Tocchet isn't a cheap player. While the hit was definitely questionable, there is no way that there was intent behind it. Sometimes things like that just happen. But that didn't stop the Oil, in particular Bill Huard, from promising some revenge somewhere down the road. Aw, that's just hockey.

Tocchet was suspended indefinitely following the contest, meaning he was unavailable for Phoenix's game the very next night in Vancouver. The boys could have used him. This one was mean.

The Coyotes opened up an early 2-0 lead on goals by Dallas Drake (7) and Mike Gartner (9) before the real festivities began. At 8:19 of the first period, a pier six brawl started with everybody pairing off. Except for Michel Petit, who elected to take some swings at Vancouver's Scott Walker while the scrappy center had his arms held by Norm Maciver. Unable to get free and defend himself, Walker absorbed three Petit punches right in the kisser. Walker eventually shook free and tried to get at Petit, but by that time his Canuck teammates were piling in to get at the Coyote defender themselves. While Petit earned a fighting major, an instigator, and a misconduct, Walker got saddled with five for fighting. Maciver and Vancouver tough guy Donald Brashear were hit with game misconducts. Just about everyone else on the ice got plain misconducts. The fight took its toll on Walker. He had to leave the game to get 24 stitches in his face.

When the rough stuff settled down, Alexander Mogilny and Gartner (10) traded goals to make the score 3-1 Phoenix heading to the second. The middle frame saw the Coyotes increase their lead on goals from Cliff Ronning (6) and Tkachuk (32). It also witnessed two more fights, with Jocelyn Lemieux and Jim McKenzie throwin' with Dave Scatchard and Chris McAllister.

Knowing that they'd already lost the game, the Canucks turned their attention to trying to settle the score with Petit. At 8:42 of the third, Phoenix's John Slaney got a kneeing penalty and opened the door to more fisticuffs. Trevor Linden, Dave Babych, and Petit would all get fighting majors and game misconducts. Less than two minutes later, Gerald Diduck (4) closed out the scoring to make the final 6-1. The penalty minute total for the contest? A rather large 205 minutes.

Afterwards the Canucks were quick to point to the teams' next meeting as the day of judgement for Petit. Brashear was especially vocal in his threats. Oh, the horror...

But before the Coyotes could worry about the Canucks, they still had that vendetta thing goin' with the Oilers because of Tocchet's hit on Smyth. The situation was calmed a bit by the NHL suspending Tocchet for one more game, meaning he'd miss the battle with the Oil.

Tocchet may not have been around, but the kneeing incident was still very much on everyone's minds. Just over three minutes into the game, Mironov took out Drake with a blatant knee. Diduck was quick to answer the call to duty, tackling Mironov to the ice and beating the Russian blueliner senseless. Diduck would receive a fighting major and a game misconduct, while Mironov got off with just two minutes for tripping. Drake would have to be helped off the ice, but did return for the start of the second period.

The Coyotes opened that second period leading 1-0 on the strength of a first-period goal by Jeremy Roenick (14). But the Oil soon took control of the game, rattling off four unanswered goals from Weight, Valeri Zelepukin, Billy Guerin, and Mike Grier. The Coyotes had a chance to cut into the 4-1 deficit, but Tkachuk missed on a penalty shot against Bob Essensa at 16:22. Lemieux would make the score 4-2 before the end of the period, but Guerin salted it away with his second of the game at 14:29 of the third to make the final 5-2.

Having Tocchet sit out the rematch with Edmonton took most of the mean-spirited fun out of it. But the second go with Vancouver on January 26 had all the necessary ingredients in place. Sensing that the game would get chippy, the Coyotes recalled Sean Gagnon from Springfield. The 6'1", 215-pound blueliner led the IHL in penalty minutes last season (457 pim) while playing for Ft. Wayne. It was no coincidence that Gagnon was paired with Petit.

Even with the new muscle on board, the Canucks wasted little time in trying to extract revenge. At 11:33 of the first, on Petit's third shift of the game, Brashear tied up with Petit in front of the Phoenix cage and punched him in the nose. The blow was made worse by the fact that Petit had his stick up in front of his face at the time. So Brashear's punch drove the shaft of Petit's stick into his own face, ripping up his nose something fierce.

While no penalty was going to be called on Brashear, the punch started another all-out brawl between the two clubs. Gagnon did his part, grabbing hold of Steve Staios and swingin' wild and free. While all this was going on, Tocchet, fresh from his suspension, had his hands on Scott Walker in the corner. The two were just standing there all peaceful like and then Petit roamed over and asked Walker, "Remember me?" That caused Walker to flip out, and he drilled Petit with a punch right on the button. Petit was staggered and fell to the ice. As he laid there face down on the frozen water, Walker belted him a couple more times.

The officials eventually got things under control, but not before a linesman had to tackle Petit and restrain him from going after Walker as the Canuck sparkplug was being led of the ice. Amazingly, Brashear, who started the whole mess, never was penalized on the play. Staios, Gagnon, Petit, and Walker were all given fighting majors, but Walker's berserker rage against Petit earned him an extra two-minute unsportsmanlike, an instigator, a 10-minute misconduct, and a double game misconduct. All added up, Walker hit the showers with 39 minutes in penalties.

It's hard to believe, but things were actually somewhat calm after that and a game was actually played. It wasn't decided until Tocchet broke a 2-2 deadlock at 15:08 of the third, wristing a shot past Sean Burke as he was being hooked to the ice. Tocchet then sealed the 4-2 win with an empty-netter, giving him 18 goals on the season.

Tocchet also added another victim to his hit list. The big right winger pounded Trevor Linden in the second period with a heavy check. While it was a clean bang, Linden fell awkwardly to the ice and messed up his knee. Stay away from Tocchet.

Talk after the game was still centered on the Petit-Walker rivalry.

"I'm a little disappointed with those guys," said Petit. "If they wanted to come and get at me, they should have come and got me and fight me. They shouldn't have tag-teamed me like they did."

On the subject of his screwed up nose courtesy of Brashear's punch, Petit offered, "It's only my nose. I still look better them him." That's funny stuff.

The two teams won't play again this season unless they meet in the playoffs. Oh wait... Vancouver sucks. The two teams will not play again this year.

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