Where have we seen this before? The Phoenix Coyotes continued a strong second half, quite similar to last year's squad, earning a 4-3 win over a talented Atlanta Thrashers squad at Jobing.com Arena on Thursday night.
The win was the Coyotes' sixth in a row, one short of the seven-game streak that the Yotes rattled off back in November.
The goals for both sides were clumped together throughout for this one, with both squads doing the majority of their scoring early.
After an early penalty on Mikkel Boedker, Eric Belanger and Lauri Korpikoski snuck a 2-on-1 through the Thrasher power play, with Belanger slapping home the game's first goal. That wouldn't be the only goal of that power play.
In the waning minutes of the man advantage, the Thrashers evened it up, with grinder Chris Thorburn netting the equalizer.
Midway through the period, the Coyotes would regain that lead. After not having scored a goal since January 13th, Coyotes captain Shane Doan netted his 12th of the year. Keith Yandle dumped it in, and Doan took advantage of a lazy Bryan Little, skating past him and slipping it past Ondrej Pavelec.
The Thrashers wouldn't be silenced, though, striking back with a captain of their own. Former Chicago Blackhawk Andrew Ladd tickled the twine for his 20th of the year, and Atlanta's second power play goal of the game.
Five minutes later, Atlanta struck again, this time with Rich Peverley. Evander Kane ripped through the Coyote defense and dished it to Tobias Enstrom, who slipped it to Peverely for the go-ahead goal.
The scoring frenzy in the second half wasn't over, though. Keith Yandle's shot from the point ended up off of the stick of Lauri Korpikoski and made its way past Ondrej Pavelec. It initially appeared to come off of a high stick, but the goal stood and the score did too, at 3-3.
With just 26 seconds left in the period, Martin Hanzal would net what would be the game winner. Hanzal got the puck in the slot, and shot it past Pavelec, who was screened by Radim Vrbata. Yandle notched his third assist on the goal.
Despite getting outshot in the third period, and for the game, the Coyotes staved off any offense from the Thrashers to seal the win. Ilya Bryzgalov wrapped it up with 33 saves for the night.
With the win, the Coyotes put a little distance between themselves and their Pacific Division rivals. Three teams in Phoenix's division (San Jose, Dallas, and Anaheim) are all tied for fifth with 68 points. Their immediate attention, however, will be turned to fourth place Nashville, who will play host to the Coyotes on Saturday.