Coyotes 3 Flames 1
CALGARY — Martin Hanzal had a goal and an assist and Ilya Bryzgalov made 39 saves Wednesday as the Phoenix Coyotes won their fourth game in a row, 3-1 over the reeling Calgary Flames.
The Flames outshot Phoenix 16-9 in the first period, but could not solve Bryzgalov, who made several big saves.
The 30-year-old Russian slid across the crease to thwart Rene Bourque after he was set up by Jarome Iginla. Later he stopped Tim Jackman as he cut to the net, then sprawled to thwart Brendan Morrison on the rebound.
With the game still scoreless in the second, Bryzgalov again showed off his acrobatic style robbing defenceman Jay Bouwmeester, who had raced in and one-timed a pass from behind the net by Matt Stajan.
Phoenix scored twice in the second period to take the lead. Wojtek Wolski scored at 7:13 with a shot over the shoulder of Miikka Kiprusoff from a near-impossible angle.
It was the second goal of the year for Wolski, who scored a career-high 23 last season.
Phoenix doubled its lead at 12:33, scoring eight seconds into its fourth power play of the night.
Hanzal redirected Radim Vrbata’s shot, and the puck slid past Kiprusoff off the leg of sprawled Flames forward Alex Tanguay.
Calgary got to within one on Bourque’s goal at 16:08 of the third setting up a dramatic finish, but the Flames could not pull even despite pouring on the late pressure.
With two minutes remaining Mikael Backlund’s shot on net ignited a scramble in front during which Tanguay put a shot off the post.
The misery continues for Calgary (7-10-0), which has lost seven of its last eight and has dropped four straight at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Five of the seven losses have been by one goal.
The Flames are second last in the Western Conference, ahead of only the Edmonton Oilers.
Lauri Korpikoski, into an empty net, rounded out the scoring for Phoenix (8-5-5).
Curtis Glencross drew the ire of the Coyotes early with a heavy body check on defenceman Keith Yandle.
Shortly after Yandle slowly staggered off the ice, Yandle’s defence partner Derek Morris went after Glencross engaging him in a spirited fight.
Later in the period, Yandle himself got in a shoving match with Glencross, an altercation that carried over to the penalty box as the two players yelled back and forth at each other.
Prior to the game, Calgary announced a four-player trade with Carolina that sent defenceman Ian White and rookie forward Brett Sutter, son of general manager Darryl Sutter, to the Hurricanes in exchange for defenceman Anton Babchuk and forward Tom Kostopoulos.
Neither of Calgary’s new players were available Wednesday.
Notes: Calgary has been outscored 24-10 in the second period this season... Phoenix has been outshot in 15 of its 18 games but has a 8-3-4 record in those games... The Coyotes improve to 6-0-3 when they score first... Four of the Flames five injured players skated with the club Wednesday morning. Out on the ice were D Adam Pardy (shoulder), Lw Ales Kotalik (knee), C Ryan Stone (knee) and Raitis Ivanans (head).