NHL - Pittsburgh Penguins @ Phoenix Coyotes 1-2 - Sat, Oct 10, 2015

When Mike Smith looked at the 2015-16 schedule and saw that the Coyotes opened with back-to-back games against the Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins, he wasn't exactly overjoyed. Smith made 11 of his 27 saves in the third period, and Jordan Martinook's first NHL goal lifted the Coyotes to a 2-1 victory Saturday against the Penguins. Tobias Rieder also scored for the Coyotes, who defeated the Kings 4-1 on the road Friday and are 2-0-0 for the first time since 2009-10, when they also defeated the Kings and Penguins in that order. The enigma that is Smith, has made saves on 67 of 69 shots he's faced and been named First Star in each game. Smith was especially good in the final period, when the Penguins came hard to attempt to avoid an 0-2-0 start. A spectacular post-to-post save on Nick Bonino and a little help from the post on a Sergei Plotnikov shot allowed the Coyotes to earn the win.
Phil Kessel scored his first goal with the Penguins, unassisted in the second period, but Pittsburgh's high-powered offense was otherwise held in check for the second time on its season-opening two-game road trip. The Penguins failed on all four power-play chances and are 0-for-7 to start the season.
Marc Andre-Fleury made 37 saves for Pittsburgh. After an action-packed first period that featured 24 shots but no goals, the Coyotes broke through when Rieder started a rush down the ice and finished it in front of the net for his second goal. Anthony Duclair won a puck battle behind the Pittsburgh net and found Rieder in the slot for a wrist shot that beat Fleury under the arm at 5:00.
Phoenix's lead lasted 17 seconds. Kessel, acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 1, collected a Shane 'cheap-shot' Doan turnover at center ice and loaded up a shot from the right circle that beat Smith to the far side. It was the Penguins' first goal in 85:17 to start the season. Phoenix needed a little more than two minutes to regain the lead. Fluery made a pad save on Martinook's shot from the slot, setting of a wild scramble in the Pittsburgh crease. The puck peeked out from under Fleury's right pad, and Martinook swept it in on the backhand at 7:29 for his first goal in his 10th NHL game.
It is a concern that Pittsburgh have lost their opening two games, traditionally slow-starting teams never recover to make the playoffs so a vast improvement needs to be made, and fast. Also a loss to the worst team in the NHL, simply can't be accepted. Captain Sidney Crosby didn't have a single shot on goal in either of the first two games and was held pointless on the trip.

Quotes

Sidney Crosby: "We had some good chances late when we got desperate and they started to sit on the lead, but it just took way too long to generate those chances. I haven't had a ton of opportunities to shoot. I think you have to really work hard to get into those positions and I have to do a better job of getting there and getting pucks to the net."
Patric Hornqvist: "We need to get our working boots on for the next few games. We can't go for swings (on shots); we have to stop the puck and get ready. We were the better team in the last period, but we couldn't find the net, and that can't happen."