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Power-play goals help lift Flames over struggling Coyotes

Oct 25, 2006 - 4:39 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- The Calgary Flames' power play has been struggling this season. For one night, they found the remedy in the Phoenix Coyotes.

Chuck Kobasew and Kristian Huselius scored power-play goals just over a minute apart in the first period to help propel the Flames to a 6-1 victory over the Coyotes.

Huselius scored the eventual game-winning goal at 15:46 when he batted a loose puck past Phoenix goaltender Mike Morrison for a 2-0 lead.

"The biggest thing was the win," Huselius said. "It's nice to have a win coming home after a tough road trip. It's a big start for a three-game home segment, and it's nice that we can score some goals, too, but the win is the key for us."

The Flames, who entered with the second-worst power play in the league at 6.8 percent (3-for-44), went 3-for-10 with the extra man.

"That's (power play) something we spent some time on the last couple of days, and I think for us getting the structure right coming out of our own zone was something we talked lots about," Calgary coach Jim Playfair said. "Getting our competitiveness up was something we talked about, and we tried to address that and getting shots on net.

"The one thing we talked about before the game was that we wanted to make sure our power play was gritty, and I thought it did a better job of that tonight."

Calgary also got a boost from increased offensive production. The Flames entered with only 15 goals in their first seven games.

"We've been getting goals but we've been letting too many in," Calgary's Matthew Lombardi said. "We've been getting away from our style. Tonight we got a couple of big power-play goals off the start and that set the tone."

Not only did the Flames' power play bury them, the Coyotes also were hurt by their inability to capitalize with the man advantage.

The Flames scored a back-breaking goal at 6:32 of the second period. Tony Amonte completed a 2-on-0 shorthanded rush when he beat Morrison low to the stick side for a 3-1 lead. Morrison was replaced by Curtis Joseph after stopping only 6-of-9 shots.

"I was going to leave the puck in the middle for Lombo (Lombardi), but he was just a little flat-footed and didn't get up there as well as I did," Amonte said. "When you see that open ice in front of you, you just have to go for it, and fortunately it went in."

Owen Nolan scored the only goal for Phoenix, which went 0-for-9 with the extra skater in losing its fourth straight game.

"Well, what's frustrating is that we seem to play pretty well. It was actually a pretty good hockey game, 2-1, and we give up a turnover and it's 3-1," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "Those things happen in hockey, but when things are tough you just have to minimize your mistakes."