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Letang, Penguins tame Coyotes

Dec 4, 2007 - 5:00 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Kris Letang's first shot was off the mark, but he made no mistake with his second one.

The defenseman's goal in the third period propelled the Pittsburgh Penguins to their fourth win in their last five games with a 3-1 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Monday.

With the teams tied at 1-1 with 8:14 remaining in the third period, Letang attempted to blast a one-timer past goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, but his shot sailed wide of the net. Sidney Crosby gained control and alertly fired a cross-slot pass back to Letang.

This time, the 20-year-old Letang made no mistake and notched his first goal of the season.

"It was just a great pass," Letang said. "It was an open net, so it was pretty easy to put it in. I didn't have to do too much."

The goal came during the Penguins' eighth power play of the evening. Pittsburgh had six chances with the extra man before the midway point of the contest.

"We're at the end of our (road) trip and we took a lot of unnecessary penalties, but our penalty kill worked hard," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "They got the one goal on us and that was a backbreaker.

"We didn't deserve to win this hockey game. They were a better team than we were tonight."

Tyler Kennedy scored just under four minutes later to give Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead.

The Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario native wristed a shot from the left faceoff circle over Bryzgalov's blocker for his fourth goal of the season.

Maxime Talbot opened the scoring with 35.9 seconds remaining in the first period.

Talbot accepted a no-look, behind-the-back pass from Georges Laraque, who was behind the net. Talbot collected the puck low in the right faceoff circle and beat Bryzgalov for his sixth goal of the season.

Laraque was traded by the Coyotes to the Penguins late last season.

"Obviously when you play with a team and come back and play against them, you always have a little extra because you always want to beat them," Laraque said. "So the fact that we won the game against my former team is exciting."

Pittsburgh limited Phoenix to only nine shots through two periods, but had only the 1-0 lead until Shane Doan scored a power-play goal to tie the game.

"It's dangerous only having a one-goal lead like that," Crosby said. "You're not putting your chances in, it's only a matter of time and they got back in it."

Marc-Andre Fleury made 16 saves to preserve the victory.

Ilya Bryzgalov made 30 saves for the Coyotes, who have lost four in a row.

"You have to be mad at losing four in a row," Doan said. "Embarrassed. We worked so hard to win four in a row and now that's all for not. It's a young team, and we've got to learn to keep fighting. We'll be OK."