Roenick Makes Ducks Feel Subpar

ANAHEIM â€”  Looking for a way to stop Phoenix Coyote forward Jeremy Roenick, the Mighty Duck defense incorrectly chose to use sticks and skates. What they should have chosen was poison and sharp teeth.

Roenick may have been more terrified by what he has discovered on Phoenix golf courses recently than by what he saw at the Pond on Monday, when he scored the winning goal for the Coyotes in a 2-1 victory over the Mighty Ducks.

“They have a lot of different things on the golf course,� Roenick said. “Tarantulas, scorpions and coyotes. Rattlesnakes. You have to watch out. It’s a dangerous place.�

That’s a bit different than the golf courses in Chicago, where Roenick played with the Blackhawks for nearly eight seasons.

Roenick, 26, was acquired by Phoenix in an August trade for Alexei Zhamnov, Craig Mills and a first-round pick in the 1997 NHL entry draft. He has given Phoenix the kind of scoring power and star power it needed at the forward position.

The goal against the Ducks was Roenick’s eighth of the season. He had 32 goals and 35 assists in 66 games for Chicago last season. Roenick has scored 40 or more goals in a season four times and has scored more than 50 goals twice.

When Roenick is not on the ice, he’s on the greens. No word from Roenick which is scarier.

“Some of these guys out there are pretty mean,� he said, “so you have to watch out for them, too. [We play golf] as much as we possibly can, but when you get bumps and bruises and knocked around, it doesn’t coincide with the golf swing too much.�

By the looks of Roenick’s winning goal Monday, he has been getting plenty of practice on the driving range. Roenick took the assist from Teppo Numminen and Bob Corkum, wound up and slapped the puck past Mighty Duck goalkeeper Guy Hebert.

Scoring is what Roenick was brought to Phoenix to do, but lately, he has found himself filling other roles.

“There’s a lot of pressure [to score], but the coach has put me in pretty much a defensive role and my job now is to shut down the other teams’ top players,� he said. “Everybody expects a lot of points out of [me] but the coach wants me to play strong defensively and that’s all I have to do.�

Roenick’s defensive effort was key in stopping the Mighty Ducks and helping the Coyotes redeem for an embarrassing 7-2 loss to Calgary Sunday.

“I thought the whole group really responded well after last night,� Coyote Coach Don Hay said. “They showed a lot of determination and a lot of character. I thought we played really solid. I though Roenick played really well.�