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Doan tallies twice as Coyotes continue to roll

Jan 16, 2008 - 6:18 AM By Bob Huhn PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) - The Phoenix Coyotes seemed to have found a way to win at home.

Captain Shane Doan scored two goals and added an assist to lead the Coyotes to a 5-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.

All-Star defenseman Ed Jovanovski added a goal and three assists and rookie Peter Mueller had three assists for Phoenix, which has now won seven of its last nine games.

Entering the contest, the Coyotes owned an 8-10-1 record and a league-low 17 points at home - as opposed to a 15-10-0 record on the road. But Tuesday's win makes four straight at Jobing.com Arena, and their current 49 points is just 18 shy on last season's entire total.

"We felt as a team we have played a lot better at home, but our home record was not really good," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "This is a huge homestand for us, playing five games at home before the break. Right now, we are a more confident team and this is an opportunity to really get ourselves right in the middle of this race."

With the game tied at 3-3 heading into the third period, Joel Perrault wasted little time putting Phoenix back on top. The 24-year-old center wristed a shot from the right circle, sending it between the legs of defenseman Douglas Murray and past All-Star goaltender Evgeni Nabokov to give Phoenix a 4-3 lead just 49 seconds into the final period.

"We just tied it up 3-3 at home, and you want to get a goal pretty quick to put pressure on them," Perrault said. "The whole game we kept playing our game and kept shooting and we knew we would get a lot of rebounds. It is a good start after the long road trip."

Doan scored his second goal of the night and 14th of the season six minutes later, tapping the puck through a scrum from the slot and past Nabokov for an insurance tally six minutes later.

"Nabokov owned us it seems for the first four or five games this series, so we wanted to make sure we didn't fall too far behind," Doan said. "I don't know if it is sending a message, but it definitely was one we knew we had to win. We didn't want to give them the idea that it was going to be easy every night against us."

The Sharks have now dropped two straight on the road after winning 10 consecutive contests away from home.

"We didn't play well," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "Somebody's got to be covering people. We had one line that was on the ice for all the goals against. You have a night like that and it is going to be tough to make up the four goals (that) you are on the ice for. It doesn't matter where you play, home or away, what matters is your record."

Mathias Tjarnqvist was credited with a goal that gave Phoenix a 3-2 lead at the 12:26 mark of the second session. Tjarnqvist was on a 2-on-1 break with Fredrik Sjostrom and blasted a shot from the left circle that Nabokov stopped, but the rebound went off the skate of defenseman Matt Carle and into the open net for a goal.

Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov allowed three goals on 24 shots for Phoenix, which improved to a season-high four games over .500.

Nabokov, who was back in net after sitting out Sunday's game - snapping his streak of consecutive games played at 43 this season - lost to Phoenix for the first time in his last seven games. It was the first time Nabokov had yielded more than four goals in a game since allowing six at Colorado on October 7.

"They were trying to put the puck in from everywhere," Nabokov said. "I think they scored three goals off rebounds. I got to control rebounds better. That was the difference in the game. These games happen, so we can't panic."