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Doan scores in shootout as Coyotes top Blackhawks

Dec 8, 2006 - 4:47 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Shane Doan patiently waited for his turn to give the Phoenix Coyotes a rare road triumph.

Doan netted the clincher in the sixth round of the shootout after defenseman Ed Jovanovski scored his fifth goal of the season in regulation as the Coyotes skated to a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Coyotes' captain, who missed nine games earlier this season with a back injury, helped Phoenix win for the fourth time in five games and record its third road victory in 13 contests.

"The shootout is always fun," Doan said. "People say they don't want it, but you want that. It's really nice when you win, but when you lose, nobody likes it."

"It was a big point for our team," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "We played hard last night (in a 3-0 loss to Dallas) and didn't get anything for it. Tonight, at least we did."

With the shootout tied at 1-1 after five rounds, Doan sealed the victory with he slipped the puck past goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin's left pad, giving the Coyotes their second shootout triumph over the Blackhawks this season. Phoenix posted a 3-2 home triumph over Chicago in the bonus format on November 16.

"(Khabibulin) is such a great guy and we play together in the summer," Doan said. "I have shot five-hole on him and have never scored, so (I) couldn't go there. I think he has stopped me every time on a breakaway, so this was a big one for me."

"He made a pretty good move on me," Khabibulin admitted. "I bought his little fake, then he just went around me."

Playing shorthanded after Blackhawks defenseman Jassen Cullimore was called for interference, Karl Stewart raced in from center ice on a breakaway and netted his second goal of the season with 7:51 to go in the first period.

Phoenix tied it with 6:06 remaining in the second session, when Jovanovski's shot from the left point found its way past netminder Mikael Tellqvist and into the top right corner of the net.

Making just his third appearance of the campaign, Tellqvist notched his third win by making 30, including a left pad stop on Ladislav Nagy from the doorstep with roughly 5 1/2 minutes left in the third period.

"The shootout makes things more interesting, obviously," Tellqvist said. "But it was fun, and fun to get a win. Our guys did a great job of letting me see the puck all night so I could make the saves."

Khabibulin turned away 34 shots but fell to 8-4-2 for Chicago, which has not suffered a regulation loss in five games under new coach Denis Savard.

The Blackhawks lost their second consecutive shootout and have just one victory in their last eight home contests against the Coyotes.

"I think we had enough chances to win it," Savard said. "We had a few posts. We had a few guys who didn't play as well, but we battled. We just didn't finish tonight. We need to execute better passes to each other. We fumbled a few pucks."

"Sometimes we don't shoot when we should," Chicago center Bryan Smolinski said. "Then we shoot when we should pass. That is something we need to work on."