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Coyotes top Blues to snap four-game losing streak

Oct 18, 2006 - 2:43 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Dave Scatchard refused to let the Phoenix Coyotes finish their four-game road trip without a victory.

Scatchard scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Shane Doan and Mike Comrie added a tally and an assist each as the Coyotes snapped a four-game losing streak with a 5-2 triumph over the St. Louis Blues.

After being outscored, 20-5, during the skid, Phoenix won for the second time in six contests this season - its first on the road - and defeated the Blues for the fourth time in their last five meetings.

"There was a certain amount of tension around here the last few days," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "That's a good sign that the players want to do well, they want to work hard and have success. ... It will go a long way for us."

"It was really important for us to find a way to win this one," Doan said. "We needed it. We needed it really bad. The teams in our division are really having some good starts and we had to find a way to make sure we found one."

Phoenix snapped a 1-1 tie with 6:09 left in the second period by successfully converting a 2-on-1 break. Rookie Enver Lisin made a cross-ice pass to the left faceoff circle, where Scatchard lifted the puck over goaltender Manny Legace's shoulder.

The Coyotes added some breathing room at 2:48 of the third session while Jay McClement was serving a tripping penalty. Doan flipped a pass from the left point off Ladislav Nagy and directly to Comrie, who slid the puck between Legace's pads.

After Martin Rucinsky cut the deficit to 3-2 with his third goal of the season for the Blues with 7:46 remaining, Owen Nolan answered with his first tally for Phoenix with 5:15 left.

"Any team plays well when you get the lead because you're more comfortable," Nolan said. "It was very important for us to get the lead tonight."

Curtis Joseph made 25 saves to record his 430th career victory, leaving him seven shy of Hall of Famer Jacques Plante for fifth place all-time.

"We did a lot of good things," Joseph said. "We got a lead which we haven't done in a while, apart from our first game. So our two wins are when we get a lead. Maybe that's the key to success, you have to get the first one."

Legace stopped 28 shots for the Blues, who lost for the first time in three home contests this season and fell to 2-3-1.

"We were terrible," Legace said. "A team on a four-game losing streak came in here and we let them off the hook. They wanted it more than we did."

"The effort wasn't there," Blues coach Mike Kitchen said. "They outskated us, outbumped us, outbattled us. We had way too many breakdowns all over the ice. We didn't play a team game at all."

The Coyotes opened the scoring at 9:17 of the opening period when Jeremy Roenick found Doan, who skated between the circles and lifted the puck over a diving Legace.

St. Louis evened the score just 4 1/2 minutes later as Keith Tkachuk set up Radek Dvorak, whose shot in front trickled past Joseph inside the right post for his second of the campaign.

"When you're struggling on the power play, you have to manage shots from the point and get it to the net," Tkachuk said after St. Louis went 0-for-8 with the man advantage. "They were blocking everything and when we did get one through, we didn't get any second chances."

Mike Zigomanis added a shorthanded empty-net goal with 23 seconds remaining for Phoenix.