Coyotes Take Giant Leap

April 26, 1998 / 8:36 PM EDT / CBS/AP

The Phoenix Coyotes, their break-even regular season notwithstanding, are in contention to break out of the first round for the first time in franchise history since 1987.

Rick Tocchet and Jeremy Roenick scored power-play goals early in the third period, and Roenick redirected the winner past shocked Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood with 7:13 to play as the Coyotes beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 Sunday to take a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference playoff series.

"We just tried to stay positive and work hard. We had nothing to lose," Roenick said.

"Jeremy is a big-game player," coach Jim Schoenfeld said. "He enjoys the big-game situation. We talked before about pressure and how some people shy away from it, and some guys relish it. Jeremy looks forward to it."

The Coyotes, who trailed 2-0 from the first 1:01 of play, would have had a fourth goal, but Mike Gartner's shot on a breakaway was disallowed because of a two-line pass.

The strong finish reminded Tocchet of Muhammad Ali's famous strategy for wearing out an opponent.

"You blink, and it was 2-0," Tocchet said. "We never even knew what was happening. They went for the knockout in the first period, and we did a little rope-a-dope."

The defending Stanley Cup champions, who hadn't trailed in a playoff series since Colorado eliminated them 4-2 in the 1996 Western Conference finals, get their chance to even the series Tuesday night before returning to Detroit for Game 5 on Thursday.

The Red Wings were 3-1-2 against Phoenix during the season, contributing to the Coyotes' 35-35-12 windup and sixth-place playoff position. The last time the franchise made it as far as the second round was when the team was in Winnipeg. That year, the Jets beat Calgary in the first round before losing to Edmonton in the second.

This is the franchise's seventh first-round series since then.

Nikolai Khabibulin, who gave up goals to Sergei Fedorov and Brendan Shanahan on two of the Red Wings' first three shots, stopped the next 24 for the win. Three of his stops came in the final 1:24, after Detroit coach Scotty Bowman pulled Osgood for a sixth skater.

For Osgood, it was just the opposite.

He came in having allowed 10 goals on 48 shots, including the Coyotes' 7-4 win two days before, and with the memory of being benched throughout last year's playoffs in favor of Mike Vernon.

Osgood stopped 29 shots, including the first 18, in an impressive two periods.

But his effectiveness flagged along with Detroit's defense.

The Coyotes started the third period with a power play after Darren McCarty was whistled for roughing Michel Petit at the end of the second. It took 58 seconds for Oleg Tverdovsky to get the first of his three assists with a shot from the blue lie.

Osgood had the sizzler in his glove, but lost it, and Tocchet banged it into the net as soon as it hit the ice.

Bowman complained to NHL officials supervisor Wally Harris about the call.

"If you get a power play at the beginning of the period, it's a huge break when the ice is fresh," Bowman said. "The play was over, McCarty brought his hand up, and then Petit flipped him over. We thought it was a soft call, and it meant a lot to them."

The play came back to haunt Detroit again when Igor Larionov went to the penalty box for holding Tocchet 1:59 into the period. Twenty seconds later, Roenick fired a shot from the blue line that glanced off the bottom of Osgood's glove and slid slowly across the line.

Roenick, who had two shorthanded goals and four points in the second game, got his fourth goal when he deflected Tverdovsky's shot just under the crossbar, and the Coyotes' intense defense ushered them into the lead in the series.

Each team had six power plays, and the Coyotes killed four in the second period alone, including a 5-on-3 Detroit advantage for 1:25 late in the period. The Coyotes scored on their last two.

"We played the first period the way we wanted to," said Shanahan, who returned to action for the first time since back pain forced him to sit out the last game of the regular season. "Then we stopped playing and tried to hang on."