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Kopitar, Brown, Brust lead Kings to shootout win

Dec 27, 2006 - 7:38 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Anze Kopitar continues to show the poise of a veteran.

The rookie center set up the tying goal late in regulation and then scored in the shootout to lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 4-3 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes.

The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Kings.

"Every victory for us is big and we have to build off it," Kopitar said. "We kept on coming after we fell behind."

Fredrik Sjostrom and Oleg Saprykin scored goals 1:17 apart in the third period to give the Coyotes a 3-2 lead.

But Kopitar attracted two defensemen at the right of the net before flicking a pass blindly between his skates to Sean Avery, who was left alone in front and fired a shot between Mikael Tellqvist's legs with 38 seconds left in the third period.

Kopitar then gave Los Angeles the edge in the shootout in the second round when he came in on Tellqvist and hesitated before firing a wrist shot from the slot that banged in off the left post.

"It was nice to see a puck go off the post for us and get through for us in the shootout," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "It's nice to see this one go our way."

Kings rookie Barry Brust, who made his NHL debut on November 30 at Phoenix, made saves with his right arm on shots by Michael Zigomanis and Mike Comrie in the first two rounds of the shootout.

"I just tried to stay square and be aggressive and tried to make them commit to one side and take that side away," Brust said.

Dustin Brown then clinched the win for the Kings in the third round. Tellqvist went for the poke check as Brown shot and the puck dribbled behind the goalie.

"He (Tellqvist) had his stick slanted so it went up and over," Brown said. "I've done the same move, just a fake and go to the forehand. But they got film so I think he knew exactly what I was doing because he was over there before I made my move. So that worked for the time being but I've got to find something new maybe."

Phoenix slipped to 3-12-1 on the road and has won only once here in 16 trips since October 2000.

"It hurts giving up a point," said Phoenix right wing Shane Doan. "We felt that we had every opportunity to win that game and more often than not we'd probably be able to win it."

Former King Yanic Perreault had a goal and an assist and Owen Nolan added two assists for the Coyotes.

Perreault scored at 7:54 of the second period to give Phoenix a 1-0 lead.

Derek Armstrong scored on a rebound from the left circle with 15:27 left in the third period, tying the game.

The Kings took the lead on a power-play goal by Rob Blake, who pinched in from the right point and skated to the bottom of the right circle, where he took a pass from Alexander Frolov and beat Tellqvist with 10:01 remaining.

Sjostrom redirected a shot by Zbynek Michalek from the left point over Brust's left shoulder, tying the game with 7:32 left.

Saprykin converted a pass from behind the net by Perreault with 6:15 remaining, giving Phoenix a 3-2 lead.

"We were able to take the lead back, but we need to find a way to win those games because we gave up that one goal at the end of the third period," Perreault said.