• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Primeau helps Flames put away Coyotes

Feb 27, 2007 - 7:03 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- The Calgary Flames turned to recently acquired Wayne Primeau to help maintain their strong play at home.

Primeau scored a pair of goals and Tony Amonte added two assists as the Flames posted a 5-2 victory over the struggling Phoenix Coyotes.

Defenseman Andrei Zyuzin scored his first goal of the season and Jamie McLennan stopped 30 shots for Calgary, which has won 13 of 14 here to improve to an NHL-best 26-6-1 at home.

"The defense did a good job with allowing me to see the puck," McLennan said. "There were some high tips and deflections and stuff throughout the course of the game, but overall, as a defensive corps, with the forwards helping out and myself included, we played a solid game."

The victory also moved the Flames (33-21-9) within two points of the first-place Vancouver Canucks (36-21-5) in the Northwest Division.

After rookie David Moss scored on the power play midway through the first period, Kristian Huselius netted his fourth in five games during a man advantage with just 49 seconds left in the session to stake the Flames to a 2-0 lead.

"Early in the first period it was a pretty even situation and we were playing pretty well," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "But then we took some unnecessary penalties and before we knew it we were down a couple of power-play goals. Obviously that gave Calgary some momentum and took some life out of us."

Primeau, who was playing his eighth game for the Flames after being acquired from the Boston Bruins on February 10, scored his first goal by wristing a pass from behind the net by Amonte past goaltender Mikael Tellqvist at 5:27 into the second period, extending the advantage to three.

"It feels good to get that first goal and to get the win because we need these points," Primeau said. "I give Amonte a lot of credit for the opportunities that I had tonight. I was just fortunate to be there to finish them off."

"I think Primeau's starting to fit in with the guys and fit in to our system," Amonte said. "We're happy to have him."

After Yanic Perreault redirected a shot by former Flames defenseman Derek Morris past McLennan to cut the Coyotes' deficit to two just 2 1/2 minutes later, Zyuzin and Primeau scored 40 seconds apart with less than eight minutes left in the session to make it 5-1.

"All of the losses are frustrating for us right now," Morris said. "We're trying to play hard just to win some games. The Flames did a good job."

Primeau's tally capped his first two-goal effort of the season and fourth career.

"I thought it was big that Primeau got a couple goals for us and Andrei Zyuzin got a goal," Flames coach Jim Playfair said. "More than four or five guys have to contribute every shift and every night."

Steven Reinprecht had a goal and Tellqvist made 28 saves for the Coyotes, who went 1-3-0 in the four-game season series with the Flames and have dropped seven of eight overall.