Glendale, AZ (Sports Network) - Don MacLean and Owen Nolan both tallied a goal
and an assist while David LeNeveu made 32 saves, as the Phoenix Coyotes downed
the Edmonton Oilers, 6-2, at Glendale Arena.
Zbynek Michalek, Georges Laraque, Ladislav Nagy and Oleg Saprykin also scored
for the Coyotes, who halted their four-game skid. Mike Comrie notched three
assists in the winning effort. MacLean and LeNeveu were recalled from San
Antonio of the American Hockey League earlier Thursday.
Fernando Pisani and Petr Sykora scored for Edmonton, which has dropped two
straight after a three-game winning streak. Jussi Markkanen allowed four goals
on 16 shots before he was pulled in favor of Dwayne Roloson, who finished with
15 saves.
The Coyotes controlled the contest from start to finish and grabbed the lead
with a power-play goal 5:08 into the first period. After a battle for the puck
down low in the offensive zone, Comrie held control along the right half-wall
and sent a soft pass into the slot for a successful one-timer by Michalek.
Ales Hemsky nearly tied the score with 14 minutes remaining in the opening
period, but his breakaway attempt was stopped by a LeNeveu pad save.
However, just seconds later, the Oilers found the equalizer when Pisani lit
the lamp from a sharp angle along the goal line to the right of the net.
Two Phoenix goals in the final 10 minutes of the first stanza gave the hosts a
two-goal edge. First, at 11:07, a power-play tally by Nagy made it 2-1. Jeremy
Roenick made a pass in the neutral zone to Ed Jovanovski, who then
pushed the puck ahead to Nagy along the right-wing side. Nagy hustled in and
fired a wrist shot past Markkanen.
Later in the period, a faceoff win saw the puck go back to the right point for
a wrist shot that was saved. However, the rebound caromed out to the low slot
and Saprykin lit the lamp with 5:16 remaining.
The fourth Coyotes goal came from an unlikely source. Early in the middle
session, Phoenix was pressing in the offensive zone before the puck settled on
the stick of enforcer Laraque, who held the disc to the right of the net. He
then pushed his way along the goal line and cut to the crease where his
backhander found the back of the net at 2:56.
Nolan's third goal of the season was scored with just over two minutes
remaining before the second intermission. Nolan corralled the puck beneath the
right circle and scored with a wrist shot that Roloson never saw due to a
screen by Comrie. Roloson complained to the referee that Comrie interfered
with him, but to no avail as the Coyotes led 5-1 after 40 minutes.
The Oilers' other goal of the game was scored at the 3:39 mark of the third.
Skating on the power play, a shot by Hemsky from above the left circle hit
traffic in front and the puck squirted over to Sykora, whose rebound found the
back of the cage. Sykora now has seven goals in 2006-07.
MacLean's goal with 9:22 remaining in regulation capped the scoring.
Several times during the contest and also after the final horn sounded, the
teams engaged in 5-on-5 fighting that had the referees struggling to maintain
order.
