Coyotes Take 4th Straight With 3-2 Win Over Sens

The Phoenix Coyotes seem to have turned their season around. With their 3-2 win over the visiting Ottawa Senators, the Coyotes have won their 4th straight game and now sit 3rd in the Pacific Division, 2 points back of the Los Angeles Kings with a game in hand. But it was almost lost as the Senators scored both their goals late in the 3rd period, erasing Phoenix's 3-0 lead.

The Coyotes got defenseman Ed Jovanovski got from injury and he got the games' first goal 3 minutes into the game. Big Jovanovski fired a wrist shot from just inside the Ottawa blue line that beat Sens netminder Brian Elliott after a poor clearing attempt by Ottawa. For Elliott, this was his 4th straight loss and has yet to win in the month of December. The Senators have now dropped five of their last six games, slipping to 3rd in the Northeast Division, only two points up on the Montreal Canadiens. Taylor Pyatt put the Coyotes up 2-0 on an unassisted breakaway at 8:49 of the first.

Left winger Petr Prucha gave Phoenix the 3-0 lead midway through the 2nd, fishing the puck from a crowd in front of Elliott and snapping a shot past the goaltender giving Prucha his 4th of the season.

In the third period, the Senators got 10 shots on Phoenix goalie Ilya Bryzgalov who although he allowed 2 goals, he has been great in the Coyotes' net, winning 4 games in a row while allowing slightly less than 2 goals per game for the last five. With this win, Bryzgalov's won/loss record improves to 16-8-1, which is definitely better than Elliott's 5-5-3 for the Senators. Ottawa's Chris Kelly and Jesse Winchester beat Bryzgalov with less than 4 minutes left spoiling his shutout bid. Winchester's goal was his 1st of the season.

Ottawa heads to Anaheim tonight, hoping to reverse their downward spiral against the lowly Ducks, while Phoenix puts their winning streak on the line Monday when they host the Minnesota Wild.