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Guerin tallies twice as Islanders edge Coyotes

Dec 14, 2007 - 4:49 AM By Doug Mittler PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- Captain Bill Guerin finally may have put a lengthy offensive drought behind him.

Guerin scored twice and Rick DiPietro stopped 34 shots as the New York Islanders defeated the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2, on Thursday in a battle of struggling offensive teams.

Defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron also scored for New York, which returned home from a four-game road trip and won for just the second time in eight games.

The game matched the clubs that entered the day with the fewest goals in the NHL. The Islanders were dead last with 66, while the Coyotes had tallied just 68 times.

Guerin tallied in both the second and third periods, giving him goals in each of his last three contests after going 16 games without one.

"Nobody likes to play poorly. I haven't had the best 30 games," Guerin said. "At times, it gets frustrating, but you have to keep pushing along. Whatever gets you going, gets you going."

Blue-liner Nick Boynton scored his first goal of the season for the Coyotes, who played the second game of a six-game road trip and visited Nassau Coliseum for the first time since October 2002.

"It was a hard-fought game," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "We did some good things. It was a pretty intense game out there for a December game."

DiPietro kept up the intensity until the final minutes, pushing several Coyotes out of the way during a furious finish. Many of Phoenix's players were frustrated with what they thought were quick whistles.

"As a player, when you go to the net and he catches it, you're told not to touch him, so you don't touch him," Coyotes captain Shane Doan said. "He then catches it and tries to whack it down the ice. If that's the case, we're going to whack at the puck when it's in his glove. That's only common sense."

DiPietro struggled in a 5-3 loss at Buffalo on Wednesday but looked far better 24 hours later. He got a break in the first period, when Phoenix defenseman Ed Jovanovski hit the goalpost with about six minutes remaining.

After making his final save of the night, DiPietro pushed Jovanovski behind the net, drawing a penalty.

"It's being competitive, standing up for one another," DiPietro said.

However, Islanders coach Ted Nolan said he would speak to his netminder about being too aggressive.

"We like Ricky's competitive spirit, but we don't need him getting in any fisticuffs," Nolan said.

Ilya Bryzgalov made 30 saves in losing for the fifth time in his last seven decisions. He had won his first four starts for the Coyotes after being claimed off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks on November 17.

The clubs played more than half the game without a goal before Guerin scored for the seventh time this season, poking home the rebound of a shot by defenseman Bruno Gervais from between the faceoff circles at 12:57 of the second.

Bergeron gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead 5:50 into the third with a power-play goal, converting a slap shot from the right circle off a pass from Miroslav Satan.

Boynton netted his first of the campaign at 8:04 of the session, burying the rebound of a shot by Radim Vrbata while shorthanded to halve the deficit.

A little over three minutes later, Mike Comrie hit the post with a backhander. But the puck soon came to the right side of the net, where Guerin easily put it home at 11:40 for a 3-1 lead.

"Guerin had a couple of big shots, a couple of big goals," Nolan said.

Niko Kapanen scored a power-play goal with 3:55 to go, drawing Phoenix within one, but the Coyotes were unable to get the equalizer past DiPietro.