GLENDALE Mickey Mantle Jersey , Ariz. — Every NHL team seemingly wanted to face the Arizona Coyotes when the season began. As the schedule winds down, they are the team no playoff contender is eager to go against.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, who have led the Eastern Conference most of the season, discovered that during a 4-1 loss to Arizona on Monday. The Vegas Golden Knights, who have led the Western Conference much of the season, discovered that during a 3-2 loss to Arizona on Wednesday.

The St. Louis Blues, already a loser to Arizona this season, are hoping they don’t meet the same fate as the Lightning and Golden Knights when they play the suddenly dangerous Coyotes on Saturday night at Gila River Arena, in a game critical to St. Louis’ playoff hopes.

The Blues (43-28-6) had won six in a row until losing at Vegas 4-3 in overtime on Friday night, a loss that gained them a valuable point but dropped them a point behind the Anaheim Ducks for the top Western Conference wild card.

Jonathan Marchessault scored twice for Vegas, including the game-winner only 22 seconds into overtime. The Ducks moved past St. Louis, 93 points to 92, by beating the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 in overtime.

Arizona (27-40-11) stumbled during a 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday as Jeff Carter scored three goals. It concluded a road trip in which the Coyotes won three of six, but they’re proving to be a very difficult opponent as the playoff races wrap up.

Certainly, much more so than back in October Youth Jonathan Allen Jersey , November and December, when the Coyotes were winless through 11 games (0-10-1) and they won only nine of their first 41.

“Unfortunately, we came up a little bit short (in Los Angeles), but we’ll take the positives and get ready to go for St. Louis,” said left winger Max Domi, who had a goal and an assist against the Kings. “It was a good test for us and a really good learning experience, too, and we’ll take that and move forward. We’ve got four games left and, hopefully, we can make the most of those.”

The Coyotes are 18-13-6 since midseason, and 15-8-2 in their last 25 games. It’s not exactly a Presidents’ Trophy-level pace, but certainly much better than midseason, when they were threatening to put together one of the NHL’s worst seasons in decades.

“I’m proud of this team,” first-year coach Rick Tocchet said. “We had a good road trip and the guys played hard.”

The Coyotes are getting production from Kevin Connauton, who scored in Los Angeles and has three goals in two games Broncos Cheap Jerseys , and rookie center Clayton Keller, who had a 10-game scoring streak stopped against the Kings. He has three goals and seven points in his last five games, and 23 goals and 62 points overall.

The Blues beat the Coyotes 3-2 in a shootout on Nov. 9 but lost to them 5-2 on Jan. 20. They had won eight of nine before Friday, including key wins over the Kings and the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Bruins.

“It was a typical Western Conference game, just heavy sticks, just heavy bodies and two teams just slugging it out,” said right winger Chris Thorburn, who scored his first goal with St. Louis.

Of those six consecutive Blues wins, four came in overtime, including three in a row from March 17-21 against the New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks and Bruins.

Brayden Schenn leads them with 65 points, including 26 goals, while Vladimir Tarasenko has a team-high 31 goals to go with 63 points.

Their late-season surge pushed the Blues from 11th place in the Western Conference on March 16 into a wild-card slot, and they now control their own playoff destiny rather than having to rely on other teams.

“Certainly, the picture’s a little bit clearer right now Evan Bouchard Oilers Jersey ,” Blues coach Mike Yeo said.

However, playing the Knights and Coyotes on back-to-back nights in the desert is proving to be quite a challenge down the stretch. And the Blues’ schedule isn’t easy, with six games in nine days counting the Vegas game, and three more on the road.

St. Louis is 12-9-2 against the Pacific Division.

“What we do beyond this (is) really going to count,” Yeo said.

After his first two games with the Vegas Golden Knights in late February, there weren’t many fans who were happy with Ryan Reaves.

He arrived from Pittsburgh and immediately made his presence known with six penalty minutes in a home-and-home series against Los Angeles, both losses. The Vegas faithful thought team chemistry was ruined.

”Ruin the whole team, yeah?” Reaves joked Tuesday as Vegas prepared for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final against Washington. ”I apologize to Vegas.”

Vegas wasn’t the only one he apologized to. Reaves immediately went to coach Gerard Gallant after those Kings games to acknowledge that while he didn’t necessarily agree with the penalties, he also would not be taking silly penalties and disrupt what Gallant and general manager George McPhee worked hard to build.

”He was up front, and he took responsibility, but I said, `Just play your game, that’s why we got you, to play your game and work hard’ and he’s been excellent ever since,” Gallant said Tuesday. ”He doesn’t take penalties Josh Allen Bills Jersey , he really doesn’t.”

Reaves believes it’s been his on-ice intelligence and hockey IQ that has made him an effective teammate over nine seasons in St. Louis, Pittsburgh and now Vegas, where he’s since become a crowd favorite.

”My fights have gone down every year,” Reaves said. ”I only had six this year and all within the first two or three months (with Pittsburgh). I think there’s always going to be physical play in this league, and as long as I can keep up and and be able to catch guys and do it in a way that’s not hurting the team, then yeah, I think I got a spot here.”

Especially after scoring what may have been the biggest goals in franchise history.

In Game 5 of the Western Conference Final in his hometown of Winnipeg, Reaves scored the game-winning goal that sent the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final. And in Game 1 against the Capitals on Monday, he scored the game-tying goal before linemate Tomas Nosek put the game-winner past Braden Holtby in a 6-4 victory that gave Vegas a 1-0 series lead.

”Playoff hockey you have to be a little smarter, you got to be a little faster, everything is kind of magnified,” Reaves said. ”I think at this time of the year the details have to be there for sure.”

Since Reaves was re-inserted into the lineup midway through the second round of the playoffs, the fourth line has clicked more often than not.

Shedding his overly aggressive tactics, Reaves has adapted to playing Vegas’ simple north-south game, while learning how to make the right decisions and build chemistry with Nosek and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. The trio is proving it can be just as important as the Golden Knights’ top line of William Karlsson Cheap Trent Murphy Jersey , Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith, and that has become extremely dangerous for teams to defend.

”I think we just try to outwork whoever we’re playing against,” Bellemare said. ”It won’t maybe work this well every night, but we get the payoff from hard work. Sometimes we can’t explain why suddenly everything clicks. But we are at the right spot at the right time and it worked for my wingers and me. Maybe your fourth line won’t change the game every single game, but when they do it sure helps.”

And while Nosek’s two goals in Game 1 against the Capitals extended his point streak to three games, he said it doesn’t matter who scores or tallies points, because it’s never been about individuals on the Golden Knights.

”That’s what we’ve done the whole year, 20 guys on the ice and off the ice,” Nosek said ”We support each other. On our (line), we just try to create some chaos in front of the net, go hard to the net and get some forecheck going, that’s how we roll, and it was good last night. It doesn’t matter who scored the goals either way, we are a team and victory is the most important thing.”

—

More Stanley Cup coverage: .