Red Wings continue mastery over Coyotes

PHOENIX — The 17,000 fans in white T-shirts made the inside of Jobing.com Arena look like the inside of a popcorn popper. Fueled by the energy, the Phoenix Coyotes issued a series of board-rattling hits on the Red Wings.

Detroit's response?

A shrug and two spirit-crushing goals.

Ruslan Salei and Drew Miller had goals 44 seconds apart in the first period to squelch Phoenix's initial flurry, and the Red Wings scored early in each period to push the Coyotes to the brink of elimination with a 4-2 win Monday night.

"We came out and weathered their storm," Miller said. "They came out hitting and we got two big goals quick. From there, we just kept going. Every time they came hard, we found a way to push back and keep going."

Detroit leveled the Coyotes in its last playoff game in the desert, eliminating them with a 6-1 win in Game 7 of last year's first round. The Red Wings put the lights out on Phoenix's whiteout this time with the two goals in the opening 2:41, another by Valtteri Filppula nearly as quickly in the second period and Johan Franzen's score 45 seconds into the third.

Jimmy Howard made it stand with some spectacular saves, giving Detroit a chance to complete the sweep Wednesday in Phoenix.

Flyers 4, Sabres 2

In Buffalo, Brian Boucher stopped 35 shots as the Flyers' new starting goalie in helping Philadelphia grab a first-round playoff series lead with a win over the Sabres.

Danny Briere and Nikolay Zherdev keyed the victory by scoring second-period goals as the Flyers bounced back with two straight wins after a 1-0 series-opening loss Thursday.

Bruins 4, Canadiens 2

In Montreal, David Krejci and Nathan Horton scored first-period goals to lead Boston over the Canadiens as the Bruins won on the road after dropping the first two games of their first-round series at home.

Tim Thomas stopped 34 shots for Boston and Rich Peverley scored in the second.

Penguins 3, Lightning 2

In Tampa, Tyler Kennedy put Pittsburgh ahead early in the third period and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots, helping the Penguins edge the Lightning.

Maxime Talbot and Arron Asham also scored for Pittsburgh, which took a 2-1 lead in their first-round Eastern Conference best-of-seven playoff series and regained home-ice advantage.

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