updated 1:56 p.m. ET Jan. 25, 2004

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Brian Boucher added another stellar performances to his quickly growing list.

Boucher made a career-high 44 saves, and five Phoenix players scored in the Coyotes’ 5-2 victory Saturday night over the Detroit Red Wings.

“It was a busy night tonight but you expect that from the Red Wings when you get up on them,” said Boucher, who earlier this month recorded an NHL-record five straight shutouts. “They’ll throw everything at you.”

Phoenix won despite recording a season-low 14 shots on goal and losing nearly two-thirds of the game’s faceoffs. The Coyotes matched a season-low with two shots in the second period, but both resulted in goals.

None of Phoenix’s goals came at even strength.

“I hope you’re not going to ask me to try and explain that one,” Phoenix coach Bob Francis said. “The difference in this game was goaltending and special teams.”

Jan Hrdina, Daymond Langkow and Radoslav Suchy scored power-play goals for Phoenix, and Daniel Cleary and Branko Radivojevic added short-handed scores.

The win was Phoenix’s second in seven games (2-4-1) at their new Glendale Arena.

“We needed these two points as badly as anybody,” Boucher said. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

Pavel Datsyuk and Mathieu Schneider scored for the Red Wings, winless in four of eight (2-4-1-1).

Detroit goalie Curtis Joseph allowed four of the goals on only eight shots before he was pulled in favor of Manny Legace at the start of the third period.

“It wasn’t my best game for sure,” Joseph said. “It’s not going my way right now. As a goalie you want to be your team’s best player and best penalty-killer but I wasn’t.”

Langkow opened the scoring 47 seconds in when he redirected Shane Doan’s shot from the right point under Joseph. Datsyuk tied it six minutes later when he fired the puck past Boucher from the left circle.

“Getting the early power-play goal establishes that you’re there to play,” Francis said. “But you don’t want to wake Detroit up too early. They’re a scary team.”

The Coyotes regained the lead for good on Suchy’s power-play goal with 12:34 left in the first.

Hrdina gave Phoenix a 3-1 lead at 3:44 of the second period when he beat Joseph with a short wrist shot from just outside the left side of the crease.

The Coyotes’ next shot came when Cleary took a long pass in front of Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom, just inside the blue line near the end of a Red Wings power play, skated in on Joseph and scored over the goalie’s right shoulder to make it 4-2 with 1:07 left in the second.

Radivojevic added a short-handed, empty-net goal with 28.7 seconds to go.

“I think overall I don’t think we can play any better,” Detroit coach Dave Lewis said. “I thought we played a real complete game. They capitalized on a couple of things that worked out really good for them.”

Notes: Phoenix’s two shots in the second matched a season low for a period. ... Red Wings D Jiri Fischer served his one-game suspension for a head-butting incident Thursday against Los Angeles. ... The Coyotes’ three power-play goals were their most since Dec. 28, 2002, against Philadelphia. ... Linesman Kevin Collins left the game in the first period after taking a high stick to the face. ... The crowd of 19,019, including several thousand Red Wings fans, was the second-largest at the Coyotes’ new arena.

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Don Smith / NHLI via Getty Images

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