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Coyotes spoil Mark Messier Night in Edmonton

Feb 28, 2007 - 7:07 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- Leave it to Wayne Gretzky's current team to cap an emotional day for the Edmonton Oilers on a sour note.

Owen Nolan and rookie Yanick Lehoux scored power-play goals and goaltender Curtis Joseph made 26 saves for his fourth shutout of the season to lead the Phoenix Coyotes to a 3-0 victory over the Oilers.

Edmonton began the day by trading leading scorer Ryan Smyth to the New York Islanders, ending his 12-year tenure with the Oilers fifth in career goals (265) and ninth in assists (284) in 770 games.

Gretzky, the Coyotes coach, joined more than a dozen former Edmonton teammates to honor Mark Messier, whose No. 11 was retired and raised to the rafters at Rexall Place before the game.

From that point on, things went downhill for the Oilers, who returned from a seven-game road trip and lost for the sixth time in eight contests.

"It was obviously a very emotional day for everyone, not only the organization and for the players, but the fans and the city," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "It was a tough day for obvious reasons and it's too bad we were flat in the first period."

"I think there (are) enough guys in this room that have gone through days like this before and have experienced it," Edmonton defenseman Jason Smith said. "This is part of hockey. There's a trade deadline every year and there's always a chance of a trade happening any time during the year. We didn't come with the work ethic tonight."

Nolan opened the scoring with 7:08 left in the first period with his 15th goal of the season from the slot to beat goaltender Dwayne Roloson.

"We came out hard, which we had to do, got some power-play chances and made good on them," Nolan said. "It feels good to get a win again and now we have to take that same energy we had tonight and carry it on."

After Lehoux netted his first tally of the season at 4:32 of the second session with a rebound of defenseman Derek Morris' shot inside the left goalpost, Steven Reinprecht scored his seventh of the campaign roughly four minutes later.

"Anytime you score a goal you're happy, especially in a winning effort like that," Lehoux said. "It was big for us and it was a big night with that kind of atmosphere with Mark Messier and the way he went out. We wanted to spoil the party for the Oilers but it was a great night, I think, for everybody."

"I thought we moved the puck around real good," Gretzky said. "That's been a weak point for us all season, but we have had our chances, just not a lot of results. Tonight, we were relaxed. We worked hard and were rewarded."

Playing his 899th career game, Joseph stopped just two shots in the first period, 12 in the second and 12 more in the third to snap a personal four-game drought and record his 51st career shutout.

"We've had our ups and downs this year, but this dressing room is close," Joseph said. "We all get along and I'm glad to be here. You hear the trade rumors. It's out of your control and I'm happy I'm still here."

"(Joseph) was outstanding, but I like the way everybody played," Gretzky said. "I like the way our defense played. I guess I can never stop talking enough about how (Keith) Ballard played and how hard he plays. He's just a real special player. All the guys played well tonight."

Phoenix shook up its roster earlier Tuesday by making three deals prior to the trade deadline. The Coyotes sent Yanic Perreault to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Oleg Saprykin to the Ottawa Senators and Georges Laraque to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"I know there's no playoffs for us but we're going to play our butts off to the end of the season," Nolan said. "There's guys playing for jobs. There's some young guys in the lineup and we just want to close the season on a positive and think about next season."

Roloson registered 29 saves and slipped to 25-25-1 for Edmonton.