Bryzgalov shines in Coyotes win

The only ones not surprised by the Phoenix Coyotes' fast start are the Phoenix Coyotes.

Captain Shane Doan thinks they should be even better.

Phoenix earned its third straight win and fifth in the first seven games of the season when defencemen Ed Jovanovski, Adrian Aucoin and Keith Yandle scored with assists from Doan in a 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Saturday in Phoenix.

The Coyotes won three in a row only twice last season, when they missed the playoffs for the seventh straight time. Despite a tumultuous summer caused by the team's uncertain future in Phoenix, the Coyotes are turning heads with 10 points already.

"You look at our season and we lost a one-goal lead in Buffalo with 10 minutes left and a 1-0 game to Columbus where I blew the tying goal," said Doan, who fought off a bout with the flu to double his point total for the season.

"We've earned the record we have. It's not a fluke. We still have lots of areas where we can improve, but our goaltending has been phenomenal."

It was strong again against the Bruins as Ilya Bryzgalov made 22 saves to raise his record to 5-1 and lower his goals-against average to 1.15 by allowing only four goals in his last five starts.

Boston, which got a second-period goal from David Krejci on the power play, beat the Stars 3-0 in Dallas on Friday but struggled in a back-to-back situation on the road. The Coyotes are in the midst of a four-game homestand.

"Give Phoenix credit, they are playing extremely well and we just didn't have enough fight in us to counter that," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "They're hardworking from start to finish and they come at you hard."

The Coyotes, haven't allowed more than two goals in a game since a season-opening 6-3 win in Los Angeles on Oct. 3.

They needed just 4:40 to take the lead for good. Jovanovski charged in from the point and slapped in Doan's feed just 15 seconds after Boston's Marc Savard was sent off for slashing.

"It was probably as close to a complete game that we've had all year," said Jovanovski, who is tied with Radim Vrbata for the team lead with three goals. "We pounced on them early with the power play and it kept rolling on.

"People are going to write what they're going to write and critics are going to criticize want they want, but we've got a pretty solid team. I wouldn't say great, but solid. But we can become great."

Aucoin made it 2-0 at 6:33 of the second when his shot dribbled through goalie Tim Thomas's pads. Krejci cut the lead in half when he deflected Blake Wheeler's drive from the point past Bryzgalov, but Yandle answered with a power-play goal for Phoenix at 15:10.

Just 44 seconds later, Scottie Upshall made it 4-1, beating Thomas with a shot from the left wing.