It's getting crazy in Coyote country

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A young Coyotes fan is tossed in the air as fans around her cheer on their team in the first round of the playoffs. (ROSS D. FRANKLIN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES)

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Westgate entertainment district is nearly empty, a few people watching their kids play in the fountains, a handful of others scattered among the tables and barstools inside the restaurants and bars.

It's like this most of the time, particularly during the day, when the only visitors are typically workers taking a break from their nearby jobs or the occasional tourist looking for Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.

That changes at night, at least when there's an event at the nearby sports venues, when the businesses fill up and fans mill across the complex before and after games.

During the Phoenix Coyotes' current playoff run, the juice turns up even more at Westgate, the die-hard fans mixing with the new ones who have jumped on the desert dogs' bandwagon to create a giant block party under the bright lights.

Hockey has become hot in the desert again and, for once, there's reason to believe support for the Coyotes will be sustained.

"It's definitely getting crazy out here, especially after the games. Everyone's rooting for them," said Aaron Hernandez, manager of McFadden's, a restaurant and bar across a walkway from Jobing.com Arena. "It's kind of like a Cinderella story. You don't hear as much about them as some of the other teams, but they're making up ground."

It's been a long, hard fight for the Coyotes to gain traction in Phoenix.

The team created a buzz when it moved from Winnipeg in 1996 and again when Wayne Gretzky came to the desert as coach in 2005.

The problem has been keeping it going.

Phoenix, over the past decade or so, has become a city of transplants, its population steadily increasing with people moving to the Valley of Sun for new jobs or to retire.

With so many people from so many other places, there's no long-lasting ties to the team, leading to games where more fans were rooting for the visiting team than the Coyotes.

The Valley also is filled with so much other competition for fans' time and dollars: The NFL's Cardinals, the NBA's Suns, the baseball Diamondbacks, Arizona State University athletics, NASCAR, the PGA and LPGA tours, not to mention hiking, biking and over 100 golf courses in the area.

Throw in a lack of sustained success -- the Phoenix version of the franchise hadn't won a playoff series in seven tries before this season -- and it's been hard for the Coyotes to gain a foothold with fickle fans who, for the most part, are only willing to support a winner.

"There's a core group of fans that's excellent and they've been here all along," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "But when you get to a stage like this here, it certainly it adds a buzz to the city and hopefully we're generating a lot of new fans."

With fans dressed in white T-shirts to create a "Whiteout," the capacity crowds making Jobing.com Arena loud as any building in hockey.

This charged-up atmosphere has provided the Coyotes with an emotional lift when they're on the ice, the cheers putting an extra jump in their step.

"It's a nice change to play in front of a sold-out barn and as loud as our crowd has been lately, it's been awesome," Coyotes defenceman Keith Yandle said. "It's something that gives you the extra motivation."

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 12, 2012 C3