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BOX SCORE
PHOENIX (AP) -- "Welcome Wayne" night almost turned into "Blown Lead" night, until Trevor Letowski came to the rescue in the nick of time.
Letowski's goal with 42 seconds remaining Wednesday night gave the Phoenix Coyotes a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
"It could've been a tragedy," Phoenix coach Bobby Francis
said. "To let a two-goal lead slip away, it would have been tough
with a big road trip coming up. There wasn't a lot of celebrating
in the locker room."
The expansion Blue Jackets had rallied from a 2-0 deficit with two goals in a 3:46 span late in the third period.
But the Coyotes went on a final attack. Columbus goalie Marc
Denis blocked Keith Tkachuk's close-range shot, but Letowski
knocked in the rebound at 19:18 of the third for his fifth goal of
the season.
"If we only came out of this with one point, not only would it have been a lost point, but it would have hurt our confidence," Letowski said. "It was a big win for us, and big for morale."
Shane Doan scored the other two goals for the Coyotes.
The victory came on a night celebrating Gretzky's takeover of
the team as a partner to new principal owner Steve Ellman.
The sellout crowd of 16,210 was dressed in white, the first regular-season "white out" in the franchise's history. The "white outs" are a playoff tradition dating to the mid-1980s, when the team was in Winnipeg.
Doan grew up a 2½ hours from Edmonton, where Gretzky had some of
his greatest moments.
"I remember crying when the Islanders beat the Oilers in the
first Stanley Cup," Doan said.
Phoenix goalie Sean Burke had his bid for his fourth shutout of the season ruined on a goal by Jamie Pushor at 14:47 of the third period.
Robert Kron tied it 2-2 with his fourth goal in five games at
18:33.
Gretzky was introduced before the game, and donned a Coyotes jersey with his No. 99 and his name.
With the crowd still in a frenzy over Gretzky, the Coyotes took a quick 1-0 lead on Doan's goal at six minutes of the first period.
Doan's biggest night of the season came in his sixth game back
after missing five games with an abdominal strain.
As happened on the winning goal, Denis blocked Keith Tkachuk's
shot, but the puck careened to Doan, who punched it in from in
front of the net for his 14th goal.
Doan's second goal came on a power play at 16:57 with Steve
Heinze of Columbus in the penalty box for holding the stick.
Doan's two-goal game was his first this season. He had five last
season, the latest at Dallas on Feb. 18, 2000.
It was the third game in a row that Columbus had given up a goal in the final three minutes of regulation. They lost first two in overtime.
"We're happy about coming back, but it's been the last few minutes of the game where we've been allowing goals," Kron said. "We've talked about it, but I don't know what it is."
In what was believed to be the first incident of its kind at
America West Arena since the Coyotes came to Phoenix in 1996, a
pane of plexiglass was shattered. It happened at 14:48 of the
second period when Heinz's slap shot soared over the Phoenix net
into the glass. The game was interrupted for 10 minutes while the
glass was replaced.
Game notes
Every fan received a white "Welcome Wayne" t-shirt with a
picture of Gretzky on the back. ... Several prominent area
residents welcomed Gretzky via taped messages on the big screen,
including Jason Kidd of the Phoenix Suns and Jake Plummer of the
Arizona Cardinals, who both were roundly booed by the crowd. ...
Columbus has lost three road games in a row and is 0-3-2 in its
last five road games.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Columbus Clubhouse
Phoenix Clubhouse
Coyotes stage 'white out' to welcome Gretzky to Phoenix
RECAPS
Carolina 6
Atlanta 3
Pittsburgh 3
Florida 2
Washington 2
Nashville 1
Vancouver 2
Montreal 1
Detroit 7
Chicago 3
Dallas 6
Minnesota 2
Phoenix 3
Columbus 2
Colorado 8
Boston 2
Anaheim 1
San Jose 0
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