Courtesy: Getty Images

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Sports journalists dug deep Wednesday for what is likely to become award-winning coverage of the Phoenix Coyotes being swept out of Stanley Cup contention by the Detroit Red Wings in the fist round of playoffs. Fox Sports posted the headline “Coyotes Disappointed at Quick Exit.” Other news agencies ran similarly insightful headlines, including “Fans Crushed at Coyotes’ Loss,” “Coyotes Frustrated,” and “Phoenix Earns Fewer Points than Detroit, Playoff Chances Uncertain.”

The startling revelations uncovered by reporters shook the sports world, and exposed an elaborate cover up from the Coyotes’ ownership team.

“This is where intelligent reporters shine,” said Tremaine Weldowhether, professor of media studies at San Narciso College. “To watch the game, it was difficult to tell what was going on. The scoreboard indicated that the Phoenix hockey team had only achieved 50 percent of the goals that the Red Wings had put away. And yet, the sell-out crowd in the stadium kept clapping and chanting, ‘Let’s go, Coyotes!’”

Weldowhether also explained that press statements issued by some of the players and managers added further confusion. In one interview, a Coyotes’ coach seemed elated and exclaimed, “A sweep? I mean, you win some and you lose some, but a sweep? In the first round of playoffs? That only happens once in a lifetime. It’s just so hard to believe, and it will certainly go down in the team’s history books.”

“But you see,” Weldowhether continued, “the diligence of the journalists at the game paid off. After a lot of interviews and discussions with game officials, reporters at companies like Fox were able to cut through the subterfuge and misdirection to get right to the truth of the matter. And truth, as they so clearly pointed out, was that the Coyotes lost the game, they will not be playing any other teams this season, and that both players and fans are, in actuality, very unhappy with the outcome.”