Coyotes Ruin the Debut of Their New Home Ice

The new Glendale Arena should be an asset to the Phoenix Coyotes in the long run. On opening night it wasn’t much help against the Nashville Predators.

Scott Walker had a goal and two assists, helping the Predators spoil Phoenix’s first game in its new arena by beating the Coyotes, 3-1, Saturday night at Glendale, Ariz.

Marek Zidlicky had a goal and an assist, and Tomas Vokoun made 32 saves to further silence the standing-room-only crowd of 19,052 in the 17,799-seat building.

“We had to come out and kill some of the energy of the crowd and the excitement,” Coach Barry Trotz said.

“We got a good lead, and we were very focused, and I thought we were able to frustrate them.”

The $220-million suburban arena is expected to make the Coyotes profitable after the team lost millions each season in the America West Arena in downtown Phoenix, where more than one-fourth of the 16,200 hockey seats had obstructed views of the ice.

Phoenix hasn’t won at home since Dec. 10 against Dallas.

Edmonton 6, Vancouver 2 -- Brad Isbister broke a tie late in the second period, and Ryan Smyth added a goal and an assist in the third as the Oilers scored five straight goals to win at Vancouver, Canada.

Tommy Salo made 32 saves for Edmonton for his first win in more than seven weeks as the Oilers ended a four-game winless slide and won for only the third time in 16 games.

Colorado 3, Philadelphia 2 -- Rob Blake scored the tying goal after Colorado pulled its goalie, and Milan Hejduk scored 1:42 into overtime for the win at Denver.

Peter Forsberg returned to the Avalanche lineup after missing 19 games because of a groin and abdominal injury.

Tampa Bay 4, Boston 2 -- Martin St. Louis scored two of Tampa Bay’s team-record three short-handed goals and assisted on the third at Tampa, Fla.

St. Louis became the first player with three short-handed points since Nov. 18, 2000, when Marian Hossa and Radek Bonk each did it for Ottawa against Florida. The NHL record is four, set by Keith Tkachuk on April 7, 1995, for Winnipeg against Vancouver.

New Jersey 2, Pittsburgh 0 -- Corey Schwab made 21 saves and Jay Pandolfo and Jeff Friesen scored power-play goals at Pittsburgh.

Schwab made only his second start of the season while Martin Brodeur was rested. Schwab made his only previous start this season Nov. 7 in a 1-1 tie against Toronto.

New York Islanders 3, Toronto 1 --At Uniondale, N.Y., Mark Parrish scored the winning goal for the second straight night to help end the Maple Leaf point streak at 16 games.

Toronto went 14-0-1-1 since its last regulation loss on Nov. 20 at Edmonton. The run tied the longest in the NHL since the 1999-2000 season, when points were first awarded for overtime losses.

Dallas 4, Columbus 3 -- Brenden Morrow and Mike Modano each had a goal and an assist at Columbus, Ohio, to lead the Stars to their fourth win in a row.

Rick Nash scored his league-leading 23rd goal for the Blue Jackets.

Carolina 2, Montreal 1 -- Sean Hill broke Carolina’s 0-for-26 power-play slump, scoring twice with the man advantage, including the game-winner in overtime at Raleigh, N.C.

Buffalo 3, Washington 1 -- Miroslav Satan had a goal and two assists, and Daniel Briere scored the tiebreaking goal with 15:41 left at Washington.