Lombardi scores game-winner as Phoenix defeats Edmonton 3-2 in shootout

Coyotes top Oilers 3-2 in shootout

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Matthew Lombardi scored in the eighth round of the shootout, the lone goal in the lengthy tiebreaker, and the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 on Saturday night.

Ilya Bryzgalov made 25 saves for his 41st win, and Phoenix broke the franchise record for home victories in a season with its 28th.

Lombardi had a goal in regulation, and Daniel Winnik scored for the first time since Jan. 14. Keith Yandle finished with two assists for the Coyotes.

Jeff Deslauriers had a season-high 42 saves to keep Edmonton in the game.

Dustin Penner and Ryan Jones, who shot wide with a chance to answer Lombardi’s shootout goal, scored for the Oilers, who have lost 10 straight on the road. Tom Gilbert had two assists.

Lombardi was 1 for 9 in the shootout this season before his winner. Phoenix has won nine of its last 10 decided by shootout and is 13-5 this season.

Lombardi’s heroics kept Phoenix four points ahead of Nashville — its next opponent — for fourth place in the Western Conference and helped cover up a dismal power-play performance by the Coyotes. Phoenix went 0 for 9 with a man advantage, including a short stint of 5-on-3 in the third period.

The Coyotes are 2 for 18 on the power play in their last four games.

Phoenix, which had gone 1-3-1 after winning nine straight, ended a two-game losing streak. The Coyotes have lost three straight only twice this season.

Penner’s goal from a sharp angle with 5:24 left in regulation tied the game at 2, and provided Deslauriers with some support. The second-year goalie kept the game close with several spectacular saves, including stopping a point-blank shot from Lombardi during a 2-on-1 rush midway through the second period.

Winnik’s goal gave Phoenix a 2-1 advantage early in the second. He beat Deslauriers high with a wrister at 4:01.

Phoenix scored 3:42 into the game when Wojtek Wolski found Lombardi ahead of the crowd in the slot with a spinning pass from the left point. Lombardi then fired the puck into a gap between Deslauriers’ legs, and it trickled past the goal line.

Edmonton tied it 1-1 at 15:48 of the first when Jones batted a loose puck by Bryzgalov during a scramble in front of the net. The goal was a career-high eighth for the second-year forward and his first for Edmonton since being claimed off waivers from Nashville on March 3.

NOTES: Edmonton is 1-7-2 in the second of back-to-back games. … Oilers F Gilbert Brule missed the game after spraining his ankle in the first period of Friday’s loss at Dallas. … The Coyotes announced the game as a sellout, their third straight.