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Perrault scores twice as Coyotes rout Rangers

Dec 17, 2007 - 2:01 AM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Wayne Gretzky's first visit to Madison Square Garden as a coach was not as dramatic as the final game of his playing career, but he still had to like what he saw from his young team.

Joel Perrault scored a pair of a power-play goals and Ilya Bryzgalov made 32 saves as the Coyotes scored four goals in the second period and made Gretzky's return a successful one with a 5-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Sunday.

In his second game since being recalled from the minors on Friday, Perrault started and finished Phoenix's most lopsided victory of the season. He scored on the power play just 3:11 into the contest and finished the barrage with 1:14 remaining in the second.

The best game of Perrault's career came after he scored 13 goals in 27 games for San Antonio of the American Hockey League.

"You wish that (you could) score one or two goals every game but sometimes it's not happening," Perrault said. "I got good confidence. I was playing good down there (San Antonio) and they called me up. They played me a lot last night and I was pretty happy the way I played the first game for the first game back and it's just a good feeling.

"He's been probably the best player down there," Gretzky said. "He worked on his skating. He's a much better skater than he was this time last year and he's playing well - good for him."

In between goals by Perrault, Phoenix scored twice in the first 3:30 of the second as rookie Daniel Carcillo and Radim Vrbata tallied 76 seconds apart. Fredrik Sjostrom, who scored twice Saturday in New Jersey, made it 4-0 with 8:26 remaining.

It was the first career two-goal game for Perrault, who had just two career goals in his first 32 games in the NHL and none since October 6, 2006. The 24-year-old center also recorded his first three-point game when he set up Carcillo's goal.

Gretzky's last appearance in this building as a participant in an NHL game was the final game of his career on April 18, 1999 against the Pittsburgh's Penguins when he concluded his three-year stint with the Rangers. He recorded his NHL-record 2,857th point on a second-period assist and afterwards skated laps around the ice to a standing ovation.

"It's just a special place," Gretzky said. "I was telling the guys before the game, the atmosphere here is one of the best you're ever going to see. I had three great years here and it was nice to come back tonight."

Due to the NHL's new scheduling format following the lockout, Pacific Division teams had yet to visit Atlantic Division buildings until this season and Gretzky's third behind the bench.

After opening their trip through the New York-area with Thursday's 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders, the Coyotes rolled to a 4-1 victory Saturday afternoon against the New Jersey Devils and kept it going in their first visit here since October 28, 2002.

"We're a young group," Gretzky said. "We play hard every night. I thought we played pretty hard against the Islanders but lost a tough game and then played a really hard game yesterday and then hard again today. We show up to play hard every night."

"It's good," Perrault added. "It's two big road wins against teams we don't see too often. It's always good to get wins on the road."

Bryzgalov did not play Saturday but picked up where backup Mikael Tellqvist left off. He made 11 saves in the first period, including five on an early New York power play, eight in the second, but lost the shutout bid with 8:33 remaining when he allowed a power-play goal to Rangers defensemen Dan Girardi.

"It's a great game," Bryzgalov said. "We played great hockey. The key was tonight we don't give up a goal in the first period when they got a couple of quality scoring chances.

"We scored the first goal and in the second period it was time to play our game, forecheck, put the puck deep and score power-play goals and a couple of goals on the rebound and I think that's the key."

The Rangers went 1-for-3 on the power play and were scoreless in their last 13 chances before Girardi's goal. They also fell to 1-4-1 in their last six contests, were blanked for the fifth time this season and lost by at least four goals for the third time in the last two weeks resulting in boos from much of the sellout crowd.

"Anytime you lose like that at home in front of your fans, you bet it's embarrassing," New York center Scott Gomez said. "The fans had every right to boo us."

Stephen Valiquette made his third start of the season and fourth overall appearance. While he did allow five goals, he was also victimized by his own teammates' mistakes as the first goal went off defenseman Fedor Tyutin's right skate and the next two were caused by turnovers behind New York's net.

"The second period obviously lost us the game," Valiquette said. "On the first three, I would say they were team goals and the last two I should have had."

Perrault opened the scoring when he positioned himself to the left of the net and took a pass from Mike York. He appeared to attempt a centering pass to Peter Mueller but the puck went off Tyutin's skate.

Carcillo scored his fifth moments after Rangers defenseman Marc Staal lost the puck behind the net. After getting the pass from Perrault, he buried a wrister from the slot.

Vrbata also capitalized on a turnover this time by New York defenseman Michal Rozsival. Sjostrom added to the barrage by making a drop pass to defenseman Keith Ballard, going to the net and putting home the rebound.

Perrault capped it by taking a pass from captain Shane Doan and depositing a wrister from the slot over Valiquette.