Shanahan, Wings Fly By Coyotes

Brendan Shanahan's feeling good and making his opponents pay.

Shanahan scored two of his three goals within a 55-second span of the second period as the Detroit Red Wings beat the slumping Phoenix Coyotes 7-2 Friday night.

"It's nice to get rewarded for the way I'm feeling health-wise," said Shanahan, who recorded his 12th career hat trick. "There were a lot of good things going on tonight. I shouldn't get all the credit just because I scored a few goals."

Steve Yzerman had a goal and an assist and Slava Kozlov, Matthew Dandenault and Tomas Holmstrom also scored for the Red Wings, who snapped a four-game winless streak and beat the Coyotes for the first time in three attempts this season.

"This is the right time to start winning," Kozlov said. "If we want to win Stanley Cup, we have to win with this team in the playoffs."

Chris Osgood made 36 saves for Detroit, which opened an eight-point lead over the idle St. Louis Blues in the Central Division despite playing without Sergei Fedorov.

Fedorov was serving the first of a five-game suspension for slashing Zdeno Chara in the Red Wings' 3-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday.

Keith Tkachuk scored a pair of rare power-play goals for Phoenix, which lost for the ninth time in 10 games. The Coyotes, who earlier in the season held opponents to two goals or less in 17 straight games, have allowed seven goals twice n their last seven games.

"What are you going to do?" Tkachuk said. "We've been struggling. It's not from a lack of trying, it's from a lack of guys in the lineup."

Phoenix was without All-Star goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, who strained his groin during the morning skate earlier Friday.

"When you have your number one goaltender our with an injury it's tough," Tkachuk said. "You can't throw in the towel now."

The Red Wings had only 10 shots on goal over the game's first 25 minutes but made the most of their opportunities.

Kozlov scored his 13th goal on Detroit's first shot when he one-timed a pass from Igor Larionov past Jimmy Waite 70 seconds into the game.

Tkachuk tied the game 1-1 at 5:31 of the period, batting the puck out of the air and forcing it past Osgood for the Coyotes' first power-play goal in four games.

The Coyotes had been held scoreless on 15 of their last 16 power-play chances.

But the Red Wings took control from there. Yzerman gave Detroit a 2-1 lead when he beat Waite on the Red Wings' fourth shot with a one-timer from the left circle at 8:24 of the period.

Shanahan put the game out of reach early in the second period. First he redirected a blast by Larry Murphy from the point past Waite at 3:37 of the period, then he took a cross-crease pass from Yzerman and bounced a shot off the inside of the left post 55 seconds later.

That ended the night for Waite, who allowed the four goals on 10 shots in his first start since being recalled from Springfield of the AHL on Thursday.

"I was trying to battle back in the second period," Waite said. "I wanted to get back and play well and they scored two goals that were about impossible to stop. That's the kind of night it was."

Waite was replaced by Scott Langkow, who was recalled from Utah of the IHL because of Khabibulin's injury.

Tkachuk brought Phoenix within 4-2 at 7:16 with his team-leading 24th goal. But Langkow, making his first appearance of the season, allowed goals to Dandenault and Holmstrom on the first six shots he faced.

Shanahan capped the scoring with a breakaway goal, his 25th, with 7:12 remaining in the game. Shanahan has 23 goals in 45 career games against the Phoenix-Winnipeg franchise.

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