Roenick’s Up to Challenge, but Team Still Struggles

What has been more difficult for Coyote forward Jeremy Roenick in the last week?

1) Having a six-hour root canal?

2) Trying to slow down the Mighty Duck express of Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya?

“I kind of wish it would never happen again,” Roenick said on Friday morning of the oral surgery.

He could have easily said the same thing after the Ducks’ 4-2 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 17,174 at the Pond in Game 2 of the Western Conference quarterfinals. The Ducks now travel to Phoenix with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven-game playoff series, with Game 3 on Sunday afternoon at America West Arena.

Particularly daunting for Roenick was that he played an intelligent, physical game at both ends, picking up two assists in Game 2. Both assists were crisp, pinpoint passes, one to defenseman Teppo Numminen in the first period--a beautiful backhander, which gave the Coyotes a brief 1-0 lead--and the other in the third period to left wing Keith Tkachuk, tying the score at 2.

Coyote Coach Don Hay tinkered with his lines a bit, switching Roenick to a line with left wing Darrin Shannon and center Bob Corkum.

But by the third period, Roenick was skating with play-making center Craig Janney and Tkachuk and the move resulted in the second Coyote goal, at 3:55.

Roenick has one goal and two assists in the series. Considering his play-making abilities on Friday, he was asked, oddly, if he planned on scoring in Game 3.

“I’ll shoot the puck when I have the puck,” said Roenick, who had 29 goals and 69 points in the regular season. “I’m an opportunist, not a shooter. I have to do a lot of different things out there.”

One of those many things included defense. At the other end, Roenick later came up with a standout play against Selanne with 8:18 remaining, catching up with him in the Coyote zone as the last man back.

“You have to be intelligent about when you hit those guys,” Roenick said. “If you over-commit yourself, and you get them when they’re looking at you, there’s no way [you can stop them]. Paul is the master of spinning out--he could be a magician--as soon as you get there he’s gone.

“The only way you can get them is to sneak attack them, like the Green Beret guys.”

Said Hay: “He [Roenick] is a key guy for us and if he can accept that role, which he has shown he can, it will really help our hockey club.

“The big thing is that we really have to focus on what we do well. We have to have a plan of how to defend against that line [of Selanne and Kariya and Jari Kurri], you have to do something. Other guys have to pick up their game.”

Though Roenick raised his level, he didn’t have enough company from his teammates.

“We should have won the damn hockey game,” said an angered Roenick. “Period. We shut down their [big] guys.

“The puck went at bad angles for them and it didn’t for us.”

Someone asked Roenick what the difference was in Game 2. And he was terse.

Said Roenick: “Luck. Bad breaks. Again.”

The other object of Roenick’s ire was the Ducks’ Ken Baumgartner who took a roughing penalty after the game was over. “It was a classless thing to do,” he said. “It’s stupid. The game was over, it was a hard-fought game. He’s a veteran. He should have known better.”