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Stars find another way to beat the Coyotes behind Lehtinen

Dec 10, 2006 - 5:23 AM GLENDALE, Arizona (Ticker) -- Jere Lehtinen started the frustration for the Phoenix Coyotes early, then completed it in overtime.

After opening the scoring, Lehtinen netted a fluke goal with less than five seconds remaining in overtime as the Dallas Stars posted a 4-3 win over the Coyotes.

Jussi Jokinen and Niklas Hagman added tallies for Dallas, which has won four straight meetings with Phoenix, including the previous three via shutout.

Lehtinen sealed the latest win with 4.6 seconds left in overtime. The Finn unleashed a backhander from the bottom of the left faceoff circle that caromed off the blocker of Mikael Tellqvist and bounced into the air.

Unable to locate the puck, Tellqvist had it bounce off the back of his mask and into the net, giving the Stars their first victory in five road games.

"It was nice to be able to score then and not go into a shootout," Lehtinen said. "We were lucky to get that last one."

"It was good to get a goal," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "We had a couple of good chances in the overtime. Lehtinen worked awfully hard and it is good to see him get rewarded with one. We had pursuit around the goal and we found the loose puck and kept throwing it there and it found a way in."

It took Phoenix a total of 67 shots over a four-game span to finally solve Dallas' goaltending.

After being blanked in the previous three meetings, the Coyotes netted their first tally against the Stars in 209 minutes, 46 seconds when defenseman Ed Jovanovski scored with 6:27 left in the first period.

The shutout sequence was the second-longest against one opponent in Dallas history.

"We were less concerned about anything like the scoreless streak against Phoenix and more concerned about doing our job and finding a way to win," Tippett said. "Through our whole lineup, everybody played with a ton of energy and that is hard to do some nights."

After Hagman's tally 42 seconds into the second period gave Dallas a 3-1 lead, Owen Nolan scored just over five minutes later to cut Phoenix's deficit to one.

The Coyotes were the more aggressive team in the third session, outshooting the Stars, 10-7. It finally paid off when Mike Zigomanis tied the game at 3-3 on a power-play goal with 12:14 left in regulation.

After Keith Ballard wristed a shot at goaltender Marty Turco, Ladislav Nagy tried to punch in the rebound before Zigomanis, also hovering near the net, slapped in the third attempt to give Phoenix hope of a come-from-behind victory.

Turco stopped 28 shots for Dallas, while Tellqvist made 40 saves for Phoenix, including five in overtime before the Lehtinen's goal with just a few ticks left.

"I was getting ready for the shootout but I am not disappointed it didn't come to a shootout," Turco said.

"We'd like to have that back but that is sports," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "Our guys played hard and that was a pretty good hockey game. Both goaltenders made some key saves, it was just a sad way to get a loss like that tonight."