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Samsonov, Ruutu lead Hurricanes in rout of struggling Coyotes

Feb 8, 2009 - 6:15 AM GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- The Carolina Hurricanes' special teams made quite the impression on the Phoenix Coyotes.

Sergei Samsonov recorded a power-play goal and three assists and Tuomo Ruutu netted two tallies and set up another as the Hurricanes handed the Coyotes their sixth straight defeat with a 7-2 triumph on Saturday.

All-Star Eric Staal and Matt Cullen each scored a power-play goal, Patrick Eaves also tallied and Chad LaRose added a shorthander for Carolina, which went 4-for-5 with the man advantage.

"We had a little meeting before the game and we tried to do the simple things on the power play," Samsonov said. "Take shots when they are there, create some movement and go to the net hard. We got some confidence early, and that got us going."

"We had a great power play and great penalty-killing," Ruutu said. "To score seven goals on the road, that doesn't happen every day."

Cam Ward made 30 saves for the Hurricanes, who improved to 6-2-0 in their last eight games.

Captain Shane Doan scored a goal to notch his 600th career point and Steven Goertzen netted his first career NHL tally for Phoenix, which fell to 1-7-0 in its last eight contests.

"We gave them way too much time and way too many opportunities, and when you do that, it's going to be ugly - and that is about as ugly and embarrassed that I have been," Doan said. "You have to be embarrassed because our job is to be a professional athlete and to win games. Tonight, we were just embarrassing."

"The physical commitment to the game has to be strong. It obviously lacked," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "The mental approach has to be strong, and we took three penalties behind their net that resulted in goals. It was a disappointing loss, and although we lost the last three, we played our tails off. Tonight, we bottomed out. It was not good."

Ilya Bryzgalov turned aside 24 shots before being replaced after two periods by Mikael Tellqvist, who made 10 saves.

"We changed goalies to give Breezy (Bryzgalov) a rest and maybe jump-start the team," Gretzky said. "It wasn't Breezy's fault."

With his team on the power play, Ruutu opened the scoring 64 seconds into the contest, when his centering feed intended for Staal caromed off a Coyote and past Bryzgalov.

"That first one was a little luck, but sometimes you need that because then the opportunities opened up after that," Staal said.

After Goertzen leveled the contest just over 5 1/2 minutes later, Staal regained the lead 2:03 into the second period.

During a man advantage, Staal gained possession of the puck and stickhandled his way through the defense before tapping a shot past Bryzgalov for his team-leading 23rd goal of the season.

Doan knotted it a 2-2 midway through the session, redirecting Joakim Lindstrom's shot past Ward for his milestone point. The goal was Doan's 248th with the Coyotes, moving him into a tie for fourth place with Paul MacLean on the franchise's all-time list.

Cullen restored the Hurricanes' lead with 4:50 remaining in the second, and Ruutu doubled it by burying a rebound on the doorstep with 53 seconds left for his second goal of the night and 16th of the season.

Eaves extended the advantage to 5-2 with his second tally of the season 3:42 into the third, and Samsonov scored Carolina's fourth power-play goal of the contest just over six minutes later.

The four-point outing was Samsonov's first since November 27, 2001, when he recorded a goal and three assists to lead the Boston Bruins to a 6-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"We've been playing a lot of close games, so it was nice to pull away a bit," Samsonov said of Saturday's rout. "We played pretty well against San Jose (a 4-3 win on Thursday) and got some confidence there, and we're trying to play with a playoff mentality. We know every game matters."

"Our penalty-killing has been really good, but the first goal, we put in the net ourselves, and it unraveled by the time we got to the sixth goal," Gretzky said. "Our penalty kill has not been a major problem, but tonight was tough."

LaRose capped the scoring on a shorthanded breakaway with 2:23 remaining in the game.