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Joseph shines against former team as Coyotes beat Blues

Nov 26, 2006 - 4:01 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Curtis Joseph wanted to show both the Phoenix Coyotes and the St. Louis Blues that he still has some life left in him.

Yanic Perreault scored the decisive goal and Joseph made it stand by stopping 25 shots as the Coyotes posted a 2-1 victory over the Blues.

Owen Nolan tallied the game's initial goal for Phoenix, which snapped a six-game road losing streak to earn just its second victory away from home in 2006-07.

Joseph was strong in net for the Coyotes, stopping eight of nine shots in the first period, eight more in the second and nine in the final session to move within three wins of tying Hall of Famer Jacques Plante for fifth place on the all-time list.

It was a strong bounce-back effort by Joseph, who gave up four goals, including a shorthanded tally, on only 26 shots in a 4-0 loss to Minnesota on Friday. Coach Wayne Gretzky pulled Joseph with three minutes left in that contest, but the 17-year veteran rebounded in impressive fashion against the team he played for from 1989-95.

"It was hot out there," Joseph said. "It was very humid and sticky. I forgot that feeling. Both teams played last night, so we all had to dig deep. ... To win a low-scoring game on the road is good for us. We got an earful this morning and the guys responded."

"Curtis was really strong," Gretzky added. "When he's good, he's good. He gives our team an opportunity to have a chance to win. I think that they feed off each other. I think that when Curtis sees and has a sense that our team is playing hard, he responds even that much better. And when our team sees him strong and solid in the net, it pushes them. It's a two-way street and they push each other."

Phoenix netted the winning tally with less than two minutes left in the second period.

Defenseman Ed Jovanovski skated in and blasted a shot at goaltender Curtis Sanford. Perreault, who was on the other side of the net, slapped the puck high past the glove side of Sanford to give the Coyotes a 2-1 lead.

"It was a nice play by Ed," Perreault said. "He was coming on a breakout and he beat his guy 1-on-1. He kept skating and he took a great shot. The goalie had to move and it gave me time to get the rebound in the middle of the ice. I tried to stop the puck in my skates from spinning so I could take a good shot."

"That's part of hockey," Sanford said. "Rebounds are going to happen. It's nothing that I'm going to dwell on. It was a hard shot. You're not going to control every rebound perfectly."

Sanford stopped 22 shots for St. Louis, which still has not won three straight games this season.

"It was there to be taken," Blues coach Mike Kitchen said. "It was a messy game and whoever was going to get the breaks was going to win. We just needed to get a break. It would have been nice to make it three in a row."

"They played well, but we had to be ready to go and we had to get two points tonight," Blues left wing Keith Tkachuk said. "We're having trouble scoring. Right now, our power play is letting us down big time. We have to find a way to win especially at home."