Kings come up dry in desert

Shane Doan returned to the Phoenix lineup and scored two goals to help the Coyotes beat the Kings, 6-4, Saturday night.

The Coyotes captain, out for three games because of a back injury, scored the first and fourth goals of Phoenix’s fourth victory in 14 games this season.

The scoring barrage led to the benching of the starting goalies, Phoenix’s Curtis Joseph early in the first period and the Kings’ Mathieu Garon early in the second.

Joseph’s replacement, David LeNeveu, had 38 saves as the Kings out-shot Phoenix, 43-24.

The Coyotes, who had averaged just over two goals a game, scored five goals in a row to erase a 3-1 deficit and take a 6-3 lead in the second period.

Ed Jovanovski had a goal, assist and one spirited fight for the Coyotes.

Coach Wayne Gretzky pulled Joseph after the Kings scored twice in the first seven minutes, the first on a power-play goal by Anze Kopitar and the second by Tom Kostopoulos, putting the Kings ahead, 2-1.

Derek Armstrong scored on LeNeveu to make it 3-1. But the Coyotes scored twice in a 28-second span late in the first period.

Enver Lisin scored his first goal, in his 10th NHL game, on a deflection of Zbynek Michalek’s shot at 13:59, then Georges Laraque took a pass from Patrick Fischer and sent it past Garon at 14:27 of the first period to tie the score, 3-3.

Phoenix scored twice early in the second period, prompting Coach Marc Crawford to replace Garon with Dan Cloutier after Jovanovski’s power-play goal made it 5-3 at 5:33 of the period.

The Coyotes, beaten by the Kings, 4-0, in their first meeting this season, promptly scored on Cloutier. Dennis Seidenberg’s first goal this season capped a run of five goals in a row to put Phoenix ahead, 6-3, at 6:38 of the second period.

The Kings cut their deficit to 6-4 at 17:34 of the second period on Alexander Frolov’s goal.