Late Power-Play Goals Lift Coyotes Over Penguins, 5-4

Mario Lemieux took care of business on the offensive end, ending a one-game scoring drought.

He couldn’t do much about the Pittsburgh Penguins’ defensive breakdown, though, except question the officiating.

Daniel Briere and Keith Tkachuk scored power-play goals 48 seconds apart late in the game Wednesday night, sending the Phoenix Coyotes to a 5-4 victory at Phoenix.

Tkachuk, who had two of Phoenix’s four power-play goals, deflected the winner past Pittsburgh goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin with 4:16 to play. Briere, who had an assist on Tkachuk’s goal, tied the score with 5:04 to play, ending a five-on-three Phoenix advantage.

“It was huge,” Tkachuk said of defeating the St. Louis Blues and Penguins in a three-day span that ended a long slide. “We felt like we’d hit rock bottom. Everybody was emotional, everybody was negative, and they had every right to be. In order to get things on the same page, we had to do it together.”

Both of Tkachuk’s goals were redirections--the first went off his body--as Aubin, who had 24 saves, struggled with traffic in front.

The Coyotes got the two-man advantage after Claude Lemieux scuffled with Kevin Stevens and Ian Moran of the Penguins with 5:34 remaining. Eleven seconds later, Marc Bergevin was whistled for cross-checking.

“We played a good hockey game, but to get two calls like that--especially the second one--it’s tough to take,” Lemieux said. “They score and take the game over. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s frustrating.”

He got a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 16,210.

San Jose 4, Calgary 4--Owen Nolan scored with less than three minutes to play in regulation to lift the Sharks into a tie at San Jose.

Chicago 5, Florida 0--Jocelyn Thibault stopped 16 shots for his fourth shutout of the season and Bob Probert scored two goals at Chicago.

Dallas 4, Nashville 3--Jere Lehtinen scored a career-high three goals and Brett Hull tallied the winner 1:41 into overtime at Dallas.

Minnesota 3, Columbus 2--Sean O’Donnell scored at 3:53 of overtime to lift the Wild over the Blue Jackets at St. Paul, Minn.