Late fluke goal gives Blues two-game winning streak

ST. LOUIS -- A fluke goal from checking forward Jamal Mayers gave the St. Louis Blues consecutive victories for the first time in almost two months.

"The hockey gods were nice to us," Mayers said after his bad-angle shot deflected in off goalie Brian Boucher's skate with four minutes left in a 4-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Monday.

The Blues, among the top teams in the Western Conference earlier in the season, began the day in ninth place. They won consecutive games for the first time since beating Columbus and San Jose on Dec. 16-18.

"It's been too long, obviously," Mayers said. "We stuck to our game plan and played a team game. Getting it in and wearing teams down is the way we need to play."

Chris Pronger had a goal and an assist for the Blues, who led 2-0 in the second period. St. Louis is 3-9-1 in its last 13 games, but coach Joel Quenneville is starting to see positive signs.

The Blues beat the Penguins 3-2 in overtime on Saturday to start their modest string.

"We had to be better, and we were in all areas," Quenneville said. "We finally caught a break, but I think it was basically on how hard we worked."

Brian Savage had a goal and an assist for the Coyotes, 1-6-2-1 in their last 10 games. Shane Doan got his team-leading 21st goal, but Phoenix failed to follow up a 3-2 victory over the Stars on Saturday that ended an eight-game winless slump.

"It's disappointing to give up a point with four minutes to go," Doan said. "It was an unfortunate bounce for Boucher."

Mayers, a third-line forward, scored his fifth goal of the season and earned only his second point in 27 games with a weak shot from near the goal line that somehow eluded Boucher. The goalie was afraid to poke it out with his stick for fear of setting up a rebound shot.

"It bounced over my stick and hit my pad," Boucher said. "It's a rotten bounce, bad luck. It should have been 2-2 going into overtime."

Mark Rycroft's empty-net goal wrapped it up with 23.2 seconds to go.

Pronger got his 13th goal on the receiving end of a three-way passing play with Petr Cajanek and Scott Mellanby at 4:57 of the first period. Doug Weight got his 11th goal, ending a 13-game drought, on a power play at 6:36 of the second. He beat Boucher with a wrist shot through traffic.

Doan cut the gap to one at 11:17 of the second. Mike Comrie hit the right goal post, and Savage appeared to have hit both posts with a rebound shot before Doan tapped it in.

With Mellanby off for interference, Savage tied it at 4:37 of the third on a power-play goal, beating Chris Osgood with a shot through traffic from the left circle.

Notes: Coyotes LW Ladislav Nagy left with a wrist injury late in the second period and did not return. He's the team's second-leading scorer with 52 points. ... Quenneville said RW Pavol Demitra, out with a hip injury since Jan. 28, will return Thursday against the Lightning. Demitra is the team's third-leading scorer with 43 points. ... Cajanek's assist was his first point in 15 games. He has six goals, but none since Nov. 29. ... Doan has a goal and six assists in the last six games.