Coyotes’ Win Is Thing of Beauty

There were moments of artistry, but they were so fleeting they stood out like a tuxedo at a tractor pull.

One was on a goal by Aki Berg, another on one by Donald Audette.

The goals by Phoenix’s Mike Sullivan and Trevor Letowski were workingmen’s scores. Blue-collar jobs.

And then, almost diamondlike when compared to other Phoenix efforts, came Keith Tkachuk’s give-and-go with Jeremy Roenick that became the game-winning goal in the Coyotes’ 3-2 victory Thursday night before 13,406 at Staples Center.

The shot came at 6:07 of the third period, and it produced a win that was Phoenix’s fifth in a row over the Kings in Los Angeles and environs. Two have come this season and were separated by a 6-1-2 run that took the Kings to the top of the NHL.

Included in that was a win at Phoenix on Sunday.

Thursday night was no Sunday drive for either team.

“We won the street fight in Phoenix. They won tonight,” said King goalie Jamie Storr, who had a view of the pushing and shoving from various distances, including all too often in his lap.

“When you put that strong an effort in, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Tkachuk generally makes his living near the net, but on this night and on this third-period rush, he headed up ice with the puck and spied Roenick near the left boards. When Tkachuk sent the pass his way, the King defense shifted its attention, and Roenick returned the puck quickly enough to give Tkachuk an alley past Mattias Norstrom and Storr.

From there, it was left to Coyote goalie Bob Essensa, who was tested 31 times, 15 in the final period.

He was more than equal to the task, leaving Garry Galley shaking his head when he was denied within stick range of the Phoenix net.

That was the most difficult, but hardly the only difficult moment of Essensa’s third period, which included facing two King power plays.

Make that powerless plays, because the Coyote penalty-killers turned off the King switch. Two long-distance boomers by Rob Blake and one by Fran Kaberle were the only shots fired.

It was fairly typical of a night in which the Kings had seven man-advantage efforts and wound up minus-one, the result of Sullivan’s short-handed score.

“Obviously, you can start with our penalty-killing unit,” Phoenix Coach Bob Francis said, handing out accolades. “. . . [The Kings’] power play is their focal point. They have [Ziggy] Palffy on the half wall and Blake up top with the one-timer you have to eliminate. It’s a tough combination to eliminate, but our guys found a way.”

Over and over again they found a way, as have other teams before them. The Kings, who were atop the NHL’s power-play statistics early this season, have failed to convert on their last 12 opportunities.

“We were all over it,” Audette said. “[Bryan] Smolinski hit his stick on the ice, Blakey’s shot . . . we had chances, but when you don’t put chances in the net, they’re no good.”

For two periods, the game was part end-to-end, back-and-forth skate, and part alley fight, a typical King-Coyote matchup that generated power plays for both teams.

“It was a typical division game,” said Audette, who scored for the second game in a row. “They’re all tough, four-point games. That was not a bad team we lost to tonight.”

No, it isn’t. And it’s not playing in a bad division. The Pacific is 39-23-14 against the rest of the league. No other division is close.

For those two periods, punches were traded as often as shots. Actually, more often in the early stages, because the Coyotes went half of the first period with only one harmless shot.

They ended that period with more punches, these exchanged by Tkachuk and the Kings’ Len Barrie. Tkachuk was judged the more aggressive and was penalized accordingly. When combined with slightly earlier transgressions by Norstrom and Phoenix’s Teppo Numminen, it gave the Kings a four-on-three advantage going into the second period. Then, for a while, it was five on three.

And then it was nothing, without a serious shot being fired.

And the final punch was left to Tkachuk, who knocked out the Kings with a bit of artistry in the third period.