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Jovanovski, Reinprecht help Coyotes end home losing streak

Nov 9, 2007 - 5:47 AM By Bob Huhn PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- It has been a while, but the Phoenix Coyotes finally found a way to win at home.

Defenseman Ed Jovanovski scored the go-ahead goal and Steven Reinprecht tallied twice and added an assist to lead the Coyotes to a 5-2 triumph over the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Phoenix, which snapped a franchise-record six-game home losing streak, picked up its first win at Jobing.com Arena since a 3-2 victory against the St. Louis Blues on Opening Night.

"It has been a long time," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "I kept on reminding our players that if you work hard and stick to the program, you will get rewarded. Everybody stuck to it, and tonight they were rewarded."

Jovanovski put the Coyotes up, 3-1, on a slap shot from the high slot at 6:14 of the second period.

"You want to contribute anytime you can, and if we (defensemen) can chip one in from the back, it always is nice," Jovanovski said. "If you look at our D, we are mobile, we all have the capability of jumping up in the play and we all shoot the puck pretty good. So there is no reason why we shouldn't contribute."

Dallas pulled within one goal when defenseman Stephane Robidas' shot bounced in off goaltender Mikael Tellqvist's glove three minutes into the final period, but Reinprecht and blue-liner Keith Ballard tallied later in the session to seal the win.

"That was a game that the team that gets the lead is going to have a real advantage," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "They got that first goal, and then the second one was a fluke, and then we get trapped in our own end and give up a third goal. Once you are chasing, you are tying to find ways to generate offense. If there was a fault in the game, that was the fault - letting them get the lead."

Reinprecht, who recorded a goal and two assists in Wednesday's 6-5 overtime win against Anaheim, gave Phoenix a 4-2 advantage at 8:25, and Ballard capped the scoring with a power-play tally with 6:06 remaining.

"We kept it easy in the first," Reinprecht said. "We might have been tired, but in the second and third, we got our legs under us and started to skate hard. The last two games, we have been throwing it on net during the power play. We are keeping it simple and crashing the net, and that has given us some success on the power play."

Tellqvist stopped 24 shots to help the Coyotes to their fourth win in five games.

One day after becoming the all-time leading scorer among American-born players, Mike Modano was kept off the scoresheet for Dallas, which lost in Phoenix for the first time in its last seven visits.

"We didn't solve it quick enough tonight and let them get a big lead," Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. "We got within one, but we couldn't get it done. Tonight was pretty sloppy by us. It wasn't because of a lack of miotivation that we lost, it was sloppy play."

Mike York opened the scoring with a power-play goal with 86 seconds remaining in the first period, and Reinprecht netted his first of the night with the man advantage at 4:16 of the second for Phoenix, which was 3-for-6 with the extra skater.

Marty Turco stopped 26 shots for the Stars, who were 0-for-3 on the power play.