Allgemein » semifinalist in Beijing last week. Murray

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Phoenix Coyotes were worried that their reputation as a defensive team was in jeopardy. On Wednesday night, they took a big step toward getting it back. Radim Vrbata scored two goals and Thomas Greiss made 28 saves to lead the Coyotes over the Minnesota Wild 3-1. The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Coyotes. The Wild have lost two straight and scored a total of one goal in that stretch. The Coyotes rank fourth in the league in goals per game, but theyd allowed 20 goals in their past five games before Wednesday. They dont have a shutout this season and hadnt allowed fewer than two goals in a game since Oct. 29. "We know we have to get back to playing a really tight defending game," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "Our offence has been very good, that hasnt been an issue. But we have to defend better and tonight hopefully was a step in that direction." The Wild were playing their first game without leading scorer Zach Parise, who is expected to miss 2 to 3 weeks with a foot injury suffered on Monday in St. Louis. Minnesotas offence was sluggish for much of the game, especially in the first period when the Wild were outshot 12-5 and fell behind 1-0. The Wild struggled to adapt to new line combinations that were immediately juggled when centre Mikael Granlund left the game and did not return after taking a hard hit on his first shift. "It seems like every game right now weve got different guys going out with different guys. But theres no excuses," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "That game was still there for us but weve got to make sure were ready to start better, thats all." Mikkel Boedker put the Coyotes on top with his sixth goal of the season at 8:13 of the first. He picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and started a 2-on-1 break with linemate Mike Ribeiro. Boedker kept the puck and fired a shot from the left faceoff circle that beat Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom. That was almost all the cushion Greiss needed. Playing in just his sixth game of the season, he said he appreciated having an early lead to take the momentum and ease some of the pressure on him. "It was great," Greiss said. "We talked a little bit about getting the first goal and playing a solid defensive game. Thats what we did." Vrbata doubled the lead at 3:42 of the second period when he pounced on a pass from Tim Kennedy from behind the net and snapped the puck past Backstrom for his seventh of the season. Dany Heatley brought the Wild within a goal midway through the third period when he buried a rebound that Greiss didnt handle cleanly. Nino Niederreiter took a shot from the top of the slot that was tipped in front of Greiss. The puck bounced off his mask and fell to Heatley at the right post, where he got his fifth goal of the season. But that was the closest Minnesota would get. Vrbata added an empty-net goal on a power play with 22.9 seconds left to provide the final margin. "Its a start," Tippett said. "We played a solid road game. We came out and had a really good first period. We got up by one and had some chances to go farther than that. "We took a few unfortunate penalties in the second and let them get a little bit of momentum, but then we weathered the storm in the third and got a solid two points." Notes: Despite missing Parise, the Wild welcomed the return of two key players on Wednesday. D Keith Ballard had missed the past nine games with two broken ribs, while C Torrey Mitchell had missed three games with a lower-body injury. ... Phoenix is 6-0-2 in its past eight games in Minnesota. Authentic Air Max 270 .500 were once common achievements for the Dallas Mavericks. Now, both are season highs as Dallas slowly works its way back into playoff contention in the Western Conference. Fake Air Max 97 For Sale . -- Once again, Carlos Santana was a huge hit in Kansas City. http://www.fakeairmaxukoutlet.com/best-max-720-trainers-cheap-uk.html .com) - Stanley Johnson had 18 points and No. Cheap Air Max 97 Wholesale . In their first meeting for six years, the Frenchmen dropped serve twice in the first set, but Giquel broke Simon two more times in the second. Gicquel moves on to face sixth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, who advanced with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) win against wild card Pierre-Hugues Herbert, despite the Frenchmans 23 aces. Cheap Air Max 95 Free Shipping . According to the Red Wings Twitter feed, Zetterberg plans to practice with the team on Thursday and is aiming for a second round comeback.Shanghai, China (SportsNetwork.com) - Top-seeded reigning two-time champion Novak Djokovic and former world No. 1 Roger Federer reached the third round, while former top-ranked great Rafael Nadal was sent packing Wednesday at the $4 million Shanghai Masters tennis event. Playing with a bout of appendicitis this week, the second-seeded Nadal lost his second straight match, this time in 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) fashion at the hands of fellow Spanish left-hander Feliciano Lopez. Nadal also came up a quarterfinal loser last week at the China Open, his first tournament back after missing three months of action with a right wrist injury. For sure [I dont feel] perfect, said Nadal. Its the same way that I felt before. A little bit more dizzy now. But thats it. Nothing that I have to worry about. When you lose a match, it is not the moment to talk about obvious things. I lost. Feli played better than me. Nadal, who has been taking antibiotics for the appendicitis, began feeling pain in his abdomen on Saturday, and the next day went to a hospital where he learned he had the early stages of the condition. Nadal said he opted for antibiotics rather than undergo surgery right away. The French Open champion said the risk of his condition getting any worse after a few days of steady improvement is always very, very low. The 2009 Shanghai runner-up said he will talk with his doctors when he returns to Spain about whether hell need to have the appendix removed. Meanwhile, the current world No. 1 Djokovic handled Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-4 and the third-seeded Federer barely survived against Argentine Leonardo Mayer, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), in 2 hours, 42 minutes, as Mayer led 5-2 in the third-set tiebreak before the Swiss legend fought back to advance at Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena. The 2010 Shanghai runner-up Federer saved five match points on Wednesday. It was the second-most match points he has saved in his career. Federer saved seven match points in a first-round win over Scott Draper in Cincinnati in 2003. Djokovic is undefeated in his last 11 matches in Shanghai and is looking to lift the trophy here ffor the third year in a row.dddddddddddd Already a Masters winner in Indian Wells, Miami and Rome this season, the 27-year-old star is chasing his 20th Masters title. He dismantled Tomas Berdych for the China Open championship last week. Djokovic beat Juan Martin del Potro in last years Shanghai finale. Another top-five upset came when former top-10 Frenchman Gilles Simon foiled fourth-seeded Australian Open champ Stan Wawrinka, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, on Day 4. And American Jack Sock posted a big upset by tackling seventh-seeded U.S. Open runner-up Kei Nishikori 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. The Japanese star Nishikori was fresh off his titles in Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur and had won 15 of his previous 16 matches on tour. Eleventh-seeded former world No. 1 Andy Murray continued his recent run of fine play by besting 6-foot-8 Pole Jerzy Janowicz 7-5, 6-2. Murray captured his first title in 15 months on Shenzhen, China, two weeks ago and was a semifinalist in Beijing last week. Murray titled here in Shanghai in 2010 and 2011 and was the runner-up in 2012. In other action involving top-10 seeds, No. 5 David Ferrer overcame Slovak Martin Klizan 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4; a No. 6 Berdych drubbed Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-1; Argentine wild card Juan Monaco doused No. 8 Canadian Milos Raonic 5-2, retired; and Frenchman Julien Benneteau upended No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 6-3. Raonic, who was last weeks Tokyo runner-up to Nishikori, succumbed to an illness while playing Monaco. Also on Wednesday, 13th-seeded John Isner edged out fellow American Steve Johnson 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (9-7); 14th-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut outlasted Canadian Vasek Pospisil 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 6-4; Tunisian qualifier Malek Jaziri beat Chinese wild card Chuhan Wang 6-0, 6-4; and Russian Mikhail Youzhny snuck past Croat Ivan Dodig 7-6 (9-7), 6-7 (4-7), 6-3. The third round will be staged on Thursday, as Djokovic will face Kazakhstans Mikhail Kukushkin, Federer will meet Bautista Agut, and the 2011 Shanghai runner-up Ferrer will tangle with the resurgent Murray in some featured matches. This weeks big winner will collect $798,450. ' ' '