Coyotes Cool Off Red-Hot Kings

The Kings may own San Jose but when it comes to the Phoenix Coyotes, it’s a different story.

One day after defeating the Sharks for the fourth consecutive time this season, the high-flying Kings were brought back down to earth on Sunday by the Coyotes, who ended Los Angeles’ six-game winning streak with a 4-0 victory in front of 14,511 at America West Arena.

Phoenix forwards Michal Handzus, Brian Savage, Shane Doan and Daymond Langkow each scored a goal but it was goaltender Sean Burke’s 25 saves that led the Coyotes, who finished the regular season unbeaten against the Kings at 2-0-3. Of the five meetings between the teams this season, Sunday’s game was the first not to go into overtime.

It didn’t help the Kings that their league-leading power play had an off night. The Kings failed to score in five man-advantage situations, while the Coyotes scored one power-play goal in eight attempts.

“It wasn’t a great game for us, that’s all. It was bound to happen,” King winger Adam Deadmarsh said.

“But I don’t know what it is. We’ve definitely struggled against [Phoenix] this year.”

Because the Kings have one less victory than San Jose, they dropped into second place in the Pacific Division with 85 points. The Coyotes, with their eighth win in a row at home, moved ahead of Dallas and into a tie with St. Louis for sixth place in the Western Conference with 82 points.

The Kings, who had not lost a game in almost three weeks, started off flat, and it cost them.

Phoenix scored two goals in the first period against King goaltender Felix Potvin, who was replaced by Jamie Storr at the start of the second. Potvin, who has played in 98 of 108 games since being acquired by the Kings last year, didn’t play badly but did give up two goals on 10 shots.

Handzus scored the Coyotes’ opening goal 5 minutes 48 seconds into the game. Veteran winger Brad May got the play going when he hit the right post from the left circle, and moments later, Handzus jumped on a loose puck and scored his 14th goal. The Coyotes’ second goal came on a power play. With the Kings short-handed, thanks to a slashing penalty on Adam Mair, Phoenix found the net again on a perfectly executed goal by Savage off a Daniel Briere assist 9:36 into the first period.

“We were weak in the first period,” King defenseman Philippe Boucher said. “We should have come out a lot stronger because we know they come out strong at home all of the time.

“There’s no excuse for the first 20 minutes we played. We should know that you have to play a full 60 to win games. The way the standings are, anyone from first place to last can beat you if you don’t play a full game.”

With his team down, 2-0, King Coach Andy Murray decided to give Storr his first action since Feb. 27.

“It was more of an attempt to shake our team up as much as anything,” Murray said. “I thought it had the desired effect. We came out hard in the second period and had multiple chances to get back into the game.”

Unfortunately for the Kings, their chances came up empty against Burke, who recorded his fifth shutout of the season and 31st of his career.

“It’s a big win for us,” said Burke, who was also helped when shots by Cliff Ronning and Bryan Smolinski deflected off either the crossbar or a post. “We had to come in and earn everything we got.”

Said Phoenix Coach Bob Francis: “Burke takes a lot of things personally. He was great for us tonight.”

Phoenix was able to maintain a two-goal edge in a scoreless second period and then took a 3-0 lead on Doan’s goal 5:20 into the third. Doan scored his 16th of the season when he beat Storr with a deflection off a Briere slap shot from the blue line.

Langkow finished the scoring with an empty-net goal.

“I don’t think we were as mentally sharp as we wanted,” said Murray. “We had the right intentions to do certain things but we just didn’t execute.

“They took advantage of a team that had played the day before.”