GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Coyotes goalie Mike Smith scored a goal from his
own crease with just over a second left to punctuate Phoenix's 5-2
victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night.
Smith was already having a good night
before sending a wrist shot the length of the ice into the vacated Red
Wings net. Smith made 31 saves before scoring his first NHL goal.
Mike Ribeiro scored twice in the third
to help the Coyotes storm back from a 2-0 deficit in the opening frame.
Martin Hanzal's goal at 7:08 of the third, in his 400th NHL game, put
Phoenix ahead 3-2. That came 2:01 after Ribeiro had tied it.
His third of the season with 6:46 remaining gave Phoenix a 4-2 lead before Smith capped the win in dramatic fashion.
Antoine Vermette started the comeback in
the second after Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi gave the Red Wings the
lead in the first.
Detroit had a four-game winning streak snapped.
The Coyotes finished a two-game season
sweep of their former Western Conference rivals. Phoenix beat the Red
Wings 4-2 in Detroit on Oct. 10.
Vermette made it 2-1 with a wrist shot past goalie Jimmy Howard with a minute left in the second period.
Howard stopped 16 shots in the first
period, the most shots the Coyotes have had in an opening period this
season. The Coyotes (5-2-2) had a chance to cut the Red Wings' lead to
one early in the second after Shane Doan was taken down on a clear
scoring chance by defenseman Brendan Smith, but Howard extended his left
leg and blocked Doan's attempted right-handed shot in front.
Howard made 28 saves in his return to the ice after missing three games because of a bruised left hand.
Mike Smith gave the Coyotes and their
fans a scare when he dropped face down onto the ice 10:08 into the
second period after reaching to block a shot. Smith was down for a
couple of minutes, being attended to by a trainer, but remained in the
game.
Detroit (6-3) scored right after Smith went down, but the goal was waved off.
Datsyuk and Bertuzzi scored less than
five minutes apart for the Red Wings, Datsyuk with the deflection of a
pass from Henrik Zetterberg from the left wing, and Bertuzzi with an
unassisted tally.
Bertuzzi took advantage of an errant centering pass from the Coyotes' Zbynek Michalek and beat Smith at 9:02 of the period.
Phoenix got on the board with a minute
left in the second period. Vermette helped clear the puck off the boards
in the Coyotes zone to teammate Rob Klinkhammer. Vermette took off down
the ice, got a return pass from Klinkhammer and lifted a slap shot over
defenseman Danny DeKeyser's stick and over Howard's left shoulder.
The Coyotes drew even on Ribeiro's
goal, which came after a faceoff and pass from Mikkel Boedker that was
deflected in front to Ribeiro.
Ribeiro has a point in six straight games. Boedker tallied a pair of assists.
