GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Five days after the Phoenix Coyotes gave up seven goals in a one-sided loss to the Los Angeles Kings, the injury-plagued Coyotes turned the tables on their Pacific Division rivals with their best wire-to-wire defensive effort of the season Tuesday night.
Derek Morris and Shane Doan broke open a scoreless and hotly contested game with goals 1:25 apart late in the second period, and goalie Mike Smith made 41 saves to lead the Coyotes to a 3-1 win against the Kings at Jobing.com Arena.
Kyle Chipchura had an assist and a spirited fight with former Coyotes forward Daniel Carcillo before capping his night by punching home a David Moss feed 5:38 into the third period to ice the win. Playing without forwards Martin Hanzal, Lauri Korpikoski and Jeff Halpern and defenseman Rostislav Klesla, the Coyotes got a strong effort from the patchwork line of Chipchura, Moss (one assist), and former Hobey Baker Award winner Andy Miele, who notched the first two NHL assists and points of his career.
The win moved the Coyotes to 8-3-2 on the season, making it their best start since the 2000-01 season, and 5-0-1 on home ice.
Smith, who allowed four first-period goals in a 7-4 Coyotes loss to Los Angeles last week, came within 3:21 of his first shutout of the season before Jarret Stoll hammered a dancing puck under his blocker on the power play.
Smith was especially good in the second period, when the Kings made their bid to score first with wave after wave of pressure. He made big saves on Carcillo, Drew Doughty and Trevor Lewis before the Coyotes finally broke through.
Morris put a wrist shot into traffic that ping-ponged off Doughty and defense partner Robyn Regehr before skidding just out of the reach of Los Angeles goalie Ben Scrivens and into the goal at 18:19.
It was the third goal and eighth point of the season for the 35-year-old Morris, who had only two goals and 22 points the last two seasons combined.
Then, after Justin Williams was penalized for roughing 31 seconds after Morris' goal, the Coyotes doubled their lead. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who had a goal disallowed in the first period, put a shot into the slot that Doan deflected around Scrivens with 5.9 seconds left in the period. It was Doan's 100 th career power-play goal and his 36th goal in 94 career games against the Kings.
Scrivens, who had a 20-save shutout against the Florida Panthers on Oct. 13 in his only other start with the Kings, played very well again, making 17 of his 30 saves in a very feisty first period that had a little bit of everything except a goal.
The teams combined for 26 shots, 10 penalties, six power plays and one disallowed goal, which came when Ekman-Larsson's bomb from the point was waved off because teammate Antoine Vermette was called for pushing Doughty into Scrivens.
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