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Mason, Perron power Blues past Coyotes

Mar 1, 2009 - 6:00 AM GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- Chris Mason turned aside 26 shots and David Perron netted a power-play goal early in the third period as the St. Louis Blues recorded a 3-1 triumph over the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday.

Jay McClement scored in the second period and Andy McDonald also tallied with one minute remaining in the third for St. Louis, which posted its third straight victory.

Mason surrendered just one goal in each of the last five games - posting a 4-0-1 mark over that stretch. Making his 18th straight start, Mason improved to 11-3-4 since January 19.

"I am feeling calm and relaxed," Mason said. "I am seeing the puck better now and letting the game come to me. Last year I struggled because I chased it and goaltending is a position you need it come to you and I have learned that."

"It all starts with your goaltender and your defensively play," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "Our PK was good it was just unfortunate we gave up that one."

Olli Jokinen netted a power-play goal and Ilya Bryzgalov turned aside 27 shots for Phoenix, which has dropped 12 of its last 15 games.

"We have too many guys not working hard and too many guys making the same mistakes over and over," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "Right now, we don't seem to have any sort of passion or energy to play hard. There are certain guys who play hard every night and that's not enough. Bryzgalov was good, but we didn't do enough offensively to warrant any kind of success."

"We need to find a way to work together on our chances and make sure we capitalize on them," defenseman Ed Jovanovski said. "We need to score goal, that's the bottom line. Our goalie played great but we can't score."

McClement opened the scoring with 4:03 remaining in the second period.

The 25-year-old accepted a feed from Alexander Steen and skated up the right wing. McClement then cut inside defenseman Ed Jovanovski and wristed a shot past Bryzgalov for his 11th goal of the season and third in as many games.

Captain Shane Doan attempted to the level the contest with 26 seconds remaining in the second period, but his wrist shot caromed off the crossbar.

With his team on the power play, Perron doubled the advantage after blasting a shot from the left faceoff circle past the blocker of Bryzgalov for his ninth goal of the season at 3:11 of the third.

"Most of the time when you have a couple of seconds, you try to pick a corner and go for it," Perron said. "I had a good shot. If there is a hole, you shoot for it."

Jokinen cut the deficit in half with 5:52 remaining in the session after deflecting a point shot from defenseman Keith Yandle past Mason for his 21st goal of the season.

"(Jovanovski) was the key to our goal he was in front of the net screening the goaltender," Gretzky said. "For whatever reason, if he doesn't go up front, we can't get anybody to stand in front of the goaltender."

McDonald capped the scoring late in the third after tucking the puck past Bryzgalov.