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Late second-period surge propels Coyotes past Wild

Dec 12, 2008 - 5:53 AM GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- A couple of quick goals helped the Phoenix Coyotes forget about their struggles against the Minnesota Wild.

Defenseman Zbynek Michalek and Olli Jokinen scored in the final 30 seconds of the second period and the Coyotes went on to post a 3-1 victory over the Wild on Thursday.

Joakim Lindstrom netted his first goal of the season and Ilya Bryzgalov made 30 saves for the Coyotes, who snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Wild. Phoenix had not defeated Minnesota since November 14, 2006.

"You can't lose forever," Bryzgalov said. "We finally beat this team, and maybe this is a turning point in our matchups."

Antti Miettinen tallied and Niklas Backstrom turned aside 28 shots for the Wild, who have lost three in a row.

"You've got to stay positive and keep working," Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said. "We are looking to get more shots, talked about getting more shots, getting the pucks at the net and getting tips. Tonight, I thought our power play did fine. The only thing is, we didn't score."

Michalek opened the scoring with 27 seconds left in the middle session and the Coyotes refused to settle for one as Jokinen doubled the advantage with 1.9 seconds remaining in the period.

"It was a tremendous shot taken by Michalek to make it 1-0, and that got our guys fired up," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "Then we scored immediately after. It was huge to come out with a two-goal lead. That's twice in two nights we had scored in the last 10 seconds.

"Tonight, as good of a team as they are and as tough as it is to score against that team, the goal was a huge goal to give us a two-goal lead."

After taking a pass from captain Shane Doan at the left point, Michalek launched a slap shot through a screen and past Backstrom on the stick side. It was Michalek's second goal of the campaign.

Phoenix then capitalized on a turnover and Peter Mueller led a 2-on-1 rush. Mueller threaded a perfect pass to Jokinen, who fired a quick wrist shot past Backstrom less than two seconds before the second intermission.

"That was a Hall-of-Fame pass from Mueller," Jokinen said. "It was a really good play. He forced the guy to make a move and they turned the puck over, and he made a world-class pass to set me up. It was easy to put in."

"That was a pretty striking end to the second period," Miettinen said. "I think we were controlling the game pretty well until then."

Lindstrom extended the advantage to 3-0 at 4:41 of the third period, deflecting Steven Reinprecht's pass into the top portion of the net.

Reinprecht collected two assists for the Coyotes, who have won six of their last nine games.