Coyotes Get Revenge On Stars

It was a meaningless game as far as the standings go. Don't try telling that to the Phoenix Coyotes.

Robert Reichel and Stephen Leach scored and Nikolai Khabibulin notched his eighth shutout as Phoenix beat the Dallas Stars 2-0 Saturday in a regular-season finale clouded by the jaw injury sustained by Coyotes center Jeremy Roenick the last time they played.

A total of 31 penalties for 119 minutes were called Saturday, including four misconducts and two game misconducts.

Khabibulin was called for a penalty and Stars goalie Ed Belfour had three including a 10-minute misconduct in a chippy first period that saw 50 penalty minutes rung up.

"There was so much buildup before the game about retaliation because of what happened to Jeremy. Things got nasty out there early," Coyotes coach Jim Schoenfeld said. "But I don't think it was ever on the verge of getting out of control or in danger of a bench-clearing brawl."

"The most important thing is we came away with a win," said Phoenix captain Keith Tkachuk, who switched from left wing to center in Roenick's absence. "We knew we were missing some guys and we needed a confidence-builder going into the playoffs."

Khabibulin had 27 saves to help the Coyotes snap a five-game losing streak and reach 90 points for only the second time in franchise history. They had 96 in 1984-85.

But the game didn't affect Dallas' position as Western Conference champion or Phoenix's fourth-place playoff seeding and seemed secondary on a day when the NHL suspended Stars defenseman Derian Hatcher for seven games because of his season-ending blow to Roenick's head last Wednesday.

Although Hatcher denied his hit was any attempt at retaliation for a March 23 incident when Roenick hit Dallas center Mike Modano, he broke Roenick's jaw in three pieces with an elbow.

Stars coach Ken Hitchcock decided to sit out several of his ey players including his first line of Brett Hull, Modano and Jere Lehtinen in fear of possible injury.

"There's a rivalry. There's a hate," Hitchcock said of his team's recent battles with the Coyotes. "There was a lot of emotion at the start of this game. Once the game settled down at the halfway point, it was just another hockey game."

The fights began 15 seconds into the game when Darryl Sydor of Dallas and Rick Tocchet of the Coyotes high-sticked each other.

Belfour, who stopped 21 shots, came out of the crease and tripped Tkachuk, drawing a misconduct, and Khabibulin was penalized for roughing Jamie Langenbrunner in front of the net.

Belfour got into it again by cross-checking Tkachuk from behind with nine minutes left in the second period. This time, Tkachuk retaliated by punching Belfour and then Sydor, who jumped in and got a game misconduct.

Reichel made it 1-0 when he scored on a rebound of a shot by Greg Adams 6:53 into the period on the power play.

It was Reichel's 26th goal of the season and seventh for Phoenix since being dealt March 20 from the New York Islanders.

Leach got his first goal of the season when he one-timed a pass from Yuha Ylonen 1:26 into the third period.

Dallas was 0-for-7 on the power play and Khabibulin's toughest save was a glove stop on Benoit Hogue with 43 seconds left in the second period off a 2-on-1 break from the Phoenix blue line.

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