It was pond hockey, a back and forth game that had somewhat of a playoff atmosphere as both teams needed the two points to continue their journey to respectability. The St. Louis Blues had a terrible season and a half and they wanted redemption; the Phoenix Coyotes started the season wondering how to win games and they wanted credibility.

A victory in the game would solve both issues.

The Coyotes had a lackluster start earlier in the home stand with losses against the Detroit Red Wings and the San Jose Sharks. They did not play with the lead and played come-from-behind hockey. Today was a different story.

Yanic Perreault shows why he is an all star as he scores the first goal of the afternoon top shelf against Blues goaltender Manny Legace. Assisted by Ladislav Nagy and Shane Doan, Perreault scores his 15th of the season.

Legace begins his domination as he makes save after save trying to keep his team in the game until the Blues got into penalty trouble. The Coyotes had two 5-on-3 power plays, and as the second of the two wound down creating a 5-on-4, Ed Jovanovski fired a cannon from the blue line and the puck found Jeremy Roenick parked in front of Legace for the deflection and the Coyotes took an early 2-0 lead. Roenick scores his sixth of the season.

The Coyotes dominated the first period and blasted 19 shots on Legace.

The Blues took over the second period and found their way back into the hockey game with goals scored by Christian Backman and Radek Dvorak that evened the score at two apiece.

However, the Blues continued their penalty trouble when Dennis Wideman took an interference penalty late in the second period. Jovanovski loaded his howitzer for another blast and fired a shot on Legace that bounced off of his blocker and into the net and the Coyotes regained the lead 3-2.

In the third period, the Coyotes found their way into penalty trouble as well and the Blues evened the score at three on a Wideman shot after a boarding penalty taken by Georges Laraque.

However, Wideman would visit the penalty box again by taking a boarding penalty himself midway through the third period and Jovanovski scores again launching the puck towards the net with Roenick setting a screen. The Coyotes retake the lead 4-3.

Peter Sejna ties the game at four in the final two minutes on a fluke goal that got past goaltender Mikael Tellqvist and the game goes to overtime.

The five minute period expires with both teams tied at four apiece.

The shootout goes to the final round as Doug Weight scores the first goal only to have Shane Doan answer with a goal of his own. Sejna tries to rescue the team once more but Tellqvist makes the save leaving the game winner up to Ladislav Nagy.

Nagy drives to the net looking for the five hole only to have Legace commit and he shoots up above Legace and wins the game.

The top line of Doan, Perreault, and Nagy along with the reuniting of the OMG line of Oleg Saprykin, Mike Zigomanis, and Georges Laraque were the catalysts to kick start the Coyotes toward victory.

Jeremy Roenick has scored his fifth goal in his last seven games for a total of six goals on the season. Lately, he has scored only when the game is on the radio and not when the game is televised. I'm not sure what that means.

Jovanovski was the most valuable player notching three points of the afternoon, two goals and one assist, all on the power play.

Josh Gratton returns to the lineup and the Coyotes are 17-8-1 when he is on the ice.

The Coyotes end the home stand on a high note, and take the act back out on the road to face the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.

Original post by PB and software by Elliott Back

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