Oilers Romp Coyotes 7-1

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 8, 1999 / 12:33 AM EST / CBS Sportsline

Georges Laraque scored Edmonton's last two goals and the Oilers defeated the Phoenix Coyotes 7-1 Thursday night.

Dean McAmmond had a goal and two assists, and Rem Murray, Boyd Devereaux, Bill Guerin and Andrei Kovalenko also scored for the Oilers, who ended Phoenix's 14-game unbeaten streak -- second-longest in the NHL this season - with a 4-3 win on Dec. 2.

Edmonton was only 2-9-3 since then, but had little trouble defeating the Coyotes for the fifth time in the last six meetings.

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"We scored some goals tonight, that's a huge difference," Oilers coach Ron Low said. "The last three or four weeks, we haven't been. The reason we did tonight was because guys were selfish. They shot the puck and didn't hesitate."

Neither team could score with an advantage -- the Coyotes killed seven power plays and the Oilers six -- but Edmonton was dynamic at even strength, running up a 3-0 lead in the first two periods and adding four goals in the third.

Edmonton's Bob Essensa won the battle of backup goalies, stopping 44 shots to even his record at 6-6-1. Essensa had 29 saves before Mike Stapleton of Phoenix broke up his shutout with a shot on the fly 56 seconds into the third period.

By then, Edmonton led 4-0. The Oilers scored two goals in the first 1:22 of the last period and Laraque got his first two of the season in the final 1:45 to run up the biggest score on the Coyotes since early last season.

Jimmy Waite of Phoenix, who was tied for third in the NHL in goals-against after giving up 20 in 11 games, stopped only 28 of 35 shots as the Coyotes finished a five-game homestand at 1-3-1.

"That's pretty bad. I hope it's as bad as it gets, but you never know," Phoenix coach Jim Schoenfeld said. "We didn't finish offensively and the other way we were bad in the neutral zone. Our defense had a tough night and obviously Jimmy (Waite) did, too. Until we get back to cleaning up our own end and playing a good game aay from the puck, we're going to struggle to win games."

Lindgren and Pat Falloon had two assist and Devereaux one, helping the Oilers improve to 9-8-3 on the road.

Laraque, a right wing playing just his third game this season, scored his first goal when a shot by Lindgren went off his skate and into the net. Then he rushed Waite near the end and scored with three seconds to play when he fired from the circle. The puck bounced off Waite's pads, hit the crossbar and then dropped onto Waite again before sliding across the red line.

Laraque also had a one-punch knockout of Steve Leach in the first period .

"It feels good. I'm very happy to get my first two goals," he said. "It's a dream, I'm on cloud nine. I got my first two goals and I got a good fight. I don't know what he was doing fighting me. I hit him and he went down and I didn't want to hit him again."

Falloon got his second assist on Devereaux's goal 9:24 into the second period. Devereaux skated from center ice and fired a wrist shot from the circle that went over Waite's left shoulder, opening a 2-0 lead.

Murray opened scoring when he skated behind the net and scored on a backhand 5:34 into the game, the second straight in which the Coyotes gave up a goal early in the first period.