Eurolanche

Mike Smith gets shutout for Coyotes

Mike Smith made 22 saves and set the franchise record for shutouts, and Brendan Perlini scored in the second period to give the Arizona Coyotes a 1-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Gila River Arena on Monday.

Smith got his 22nd shutout, passing Ilya Bryzgalov and Nikolai Khabibulin. Smith made big stops on Matt Nieto and Matt Duchene in the third period and denied Nathan MacKinnon in front in the final minute to preserve the 33rd shutout of his NHL career and third this season.

"It's something you don't think about often but I'm not going to lie, [setting the record] was trickling into my brain later in the game so I'm glad I got it over with," Smith said. "We carried the play for the second and third period but the way we maintained the lead says a lot about the growth of this team. I grew up watching [Khabibulin] play quite a bit. But to get that many shutouts with one team is a pretty cool achievement. I've played with a lot of special people during my time in Arizona that deserve a lot of credit and piece of this. You don't get shutouts alone. Winning is most important and shutouts are the bonus, and they say more about how the team plays in front of you."

Perlini scored for the third straight game for Arizona (25-35-8), which has won two straight and is 4-1-1 in the past six home games.

"He keeps coming and he shoots the puck a ton," Arizona coach Dave Tippett said. "If you look at the last two goals he's got, he's beating goalies. He steps into that hard wrist shot and he's a goal scorer. That's what he does."

Colorado (19-46-3) got 34 saves from Calvin Pickard, but lost for the 14th time in the past 18 games (4-13-1). Pickard stopped Max Domi twice on breakaways in the third period and Domi missed a chance at an empty-net goal when his shot was smothered by defenseman Erik Johnson.

"They have some good, young talent and some good speed," Pickard said. "But it was right there for us and we had a good push at the end but their goalie made some good stops."

The Avalanche have been shut out an NHL-high 12 times this season.

"I thought both goalies were good but we missed the net on too many of our good chances, especially in the first period," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "All of our best chances were missed on, and then as the game went on Smith was good in goal. [Pickard] was good for us, they got their one and that was it."

Neither team had a shot for the final 9:14 of the first period, but Arizona went up 1-0 at 3:49 of the second period on the rush.

Peter Holland skated into the Colorado zone and found the trailing Perlini for a hard wrist shot. It was his 13th goal of the season.

"It was a nice little chip up the wall by [Tobias] Rieder to get it started," Perlini said. "I can't remember if I was screaming for the puck or not. Usually I am."

Pickard stopped 18 of 19 shots in the second period, denying Jamie McGinn, Alex Goligoski and Rieder in succession before stopping Rieder again with a dynamic glove save.

-- by Jerry Brown for NHL.com --