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Carcillo shines in rare spot as Coyotes win in shootout

Feb 20, 2009 - 6:34 AM GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- Daniel Carcillo has clearly earned his reputation as an enforcer. On Thursday, he was a hero.

Carcillo scored in the eighth round of a marathon shootout, lifting the Phoenix Coyotes to a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers.

"I just tried to put it in the net and I am glad it went in," Carcillo said. "There is a little bit of pressure, but I was having fun with it. I know a bunch of guys in their bench and they were all laughing when they saw me go out and I was laughing, too. I just winged it."

Captain Shane Doan also tallied in the bonus format, during which Mikael Tellqvist turned aside seven shots. Joakim Lindstrom, rookie Viktor Tikhanov and Steven Goertzen all scored in regulation for Phoenix, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

"(Tellqvist) was unreal in the shootout," Doan said. "Put a goalie in that position where he has to make the save and he kept doing it for us. I saw an opening and was lucky enough to get it through. I would like to do that every time. Plus, the shootout is so great for the fans."

Erik Christensen and Bryan Little netted goals before captain Ilya Kovalchuk forged a 3-3 tie with 53 seconds remaining in the third period for the Thrashers, who had won two in a row and three of their previous four.

"We didn't have a great game," Atlanta coach Jon Anderson said. "We played better in Anaheim and Los Angeles but I think the road trip is wearing on us a little bit. For us to come back in the third, I was real proud of our guys."

After Christensen and Lindstrom traded power-play tallies in the first period, the Coyotes built a 3-1 lead when Tikhanov and Goertzen scored in a five-minutes span early in the middle session.

Little registered his 24th goal of the season with 7:44 left in the second and Atlanta was able to force overtime when Kovalchuk lifted a wrist shot over a sprawling Tellqvist in the final minute.

"I think from the last 10 minutes of the second we played a real solid game," Kovalchuk said. "We can't win every time on the shootout but we are going to work on that."

After a scoreless opening round of the shootout, Vyacheslav Kozlov gave the Thrashers the upper hand by beating Tellqvist in the second set. In the third round, however, Doan kept the game alive with a wrister.

"(Doan) made a tremendous shot with the small opening he had," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "We wouldn't be here if he didn't do what he did tonight."

Tellqvist and Kari Lehtonen traded scoreless frames for the next four sets. In the eighth round, Tellqvist stymied Colby Armstrong's attempt and Carcillo secured the win by using a nifty deke and a wrister to solve Lehtonen, who finished with 37 saves.

"He was right before I went to the defensemen," Gretzky said of Carcillo. "He played really solid hockey tonight. I thought the second period was as good a period we have played in the last 10 days.

"We had 40 shots on net and defensively we really didn't have any breakdowns and we were really disciplined and took just one penalty."

Making his second straight start, Tellqvist stopped 19 shots before the bonus format.