The Nashville Predators played the Phoenix Coyotes in the Western Conference semifinals on Friday night.  The Coyotes managed to win with a score of 4-3.

Mike Smith, Phoenix goalie, watched his stick sail to the backboards after stretching to block a shot made by a Nashville player.  Smith slid across the crease, throwing his gloves wherever the puck presented itself, trying to stay low.  After about 30 seconds of flipping and flopping, Smith was relieved when his teammates cleared the puck.

“We practiced that…but I’m not real comfortable with it,” says Smith.

Smith has been the spectacular during the playoffs, practically willing the Coyotes to victory against the Blackhawks in the first round.  The worry for the Coyotes is that they are relying on Smith a little too much.

“He’s a good goalie, you can’t deny that.  He had a good series against Chicago and he was good yesterday,” said Shea Weber, Predators captain.

The Coyotes have been playing a very close-game season with a great majority of the pressure weighing heavily on Smith.  Most of their wins have been won in overtime too.  In fact, they became the first team in NHL history to go into overtime in six out of the seven playoff games.  They actually managed to score seven goals in their first game.

Some may think this is a risky way to play; but obviously, it’s working out for them.

Phoenix forward, Daymond Kangkow, said on Saturday after practice, “We’ve got to be better because sooner or later it’s going to cost us.  We sit back in the third, we’ve had leads, we just need to be more aggressive.  We just sat back and you can’t do that against a good team like that.”

On Friday, the Predators had to shake off a slow start considering they had a week of rest after their win against Detroit.  Both teams played great over the first two periods.

By the third period, the Predators seemed to be the ones in control. It seemed as though the entire period was spent in the Coyotes’ zone, with the Predators out shooting them 16-1.

Then overtime came around and the Predators lost when Ray Whitney took a pass from Martin Hanzal and flipped it past Rinne for the game-winner.

Nashville’s center, Mike Fisher said, “They’re opportunistic, they’ve got a great goaltender – they’re a lot like us.  We got some of those wins against Detroit, so we’ve seen it and know what to expect, but it was just a matter of coming up with a big shot.”