By Dave Vest
GLENDALE – Ed Jovanovski scored a goal from deep in the crease with 1:23 left in overtime Thursday night to lead the Coyotes to a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues at Jobing.com Arena.

Scottie Upshall and Shane Doan also scored for Phoenix (4-2-0), which won its first home game of the 2009-10 season.

After a scoreless first period, Phoenix trailed 1-0 and 2-1 before rallying for a dramatic victory in the first game of a four-game homestand.

Trailing 1-0, Doan scored his first goal of the season by tapping a rebound past Blues goalie Chris Mason during a power play midway through the second period.

"It wasn’t exactly the prettiest one of the year, but I’ll take any one that goes in right now," Doan said.

The Blues regained the momentum less than three minutes later when Paul Kariya whacked at the puck as Coyotes defenseman Keith Yandle began skating up the ice with it from behind the Phoenix goal and knocked it off Yandle's stick, between Phoenix goalie Ilya Bryzgalov's legs and into the net at 12:19 of the second period.

Instead of caving, the Coyotes rallied. Phoenix evened the score at 2 at 8:27 of the third period when Upshall capped a two-on-one rush with a nifty wrist shot that got past Mason. Center Matthew Lombardi, who returned to the lineup after missing one game because of a minor lower-body injury, set up the goal with a nicely-timed pass to Upshall, who got Mason out of position with fancy stickwork.

"Yeah, it was kind of a roller-coaster game," Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett said. "I thought early on in the game, the first 10 or 12 minutes, we were real sharp. We created some good opportunities, and (then) we started turning the puck over a little bit the last part of the first period and they started taking it to us a little bit. Second period, we continued to turn it over, just lost too many one-on-one battles... So in the third period, we simplified things a little bit, got our legs under us and got skating and were able to push the game ahead for ourselves."

David Backes scored the other goal for the Blues (2-2-1).

Bryzgalov made 22 saves.

It took nearly five minutes to confirm, but the referees and off-ice officials finally awarded Coyotes defenseman Ed Jovanovski the game-winning goal after he knocked a loose mid-air puck past Blues goalie Chris Mason with the shaft of his stick at 3:37 of overtime.

Jovanovski charged the crease hard on the play and was in the right place at the right time as the puck tried to fall to the ice.

"It’s clearly a goal," Blues Head Coach Andy Murray said. "It went off his stick, and Jovanovski just came driving through with everybody around there. The puck was up in the air and he was the biggest body there and he got through first."

• Forward Taylor Pyatt was removed from the injured-reserve list before the game and made his debut with the Coyotes. He played 14:29 and took two shots on goal.

• Defenseman Zbynek Michalek assisted on Ed Jovanovski's game-winning goal. It was the 100th point of Michalek's NHL career.

• Doan's goal snapped Phoenix's scoreless streak of 166 minutes, 47 seconds dating to Oct. 8 in Buffalo.

• The Coyotes scratched Paul Bissonnette and Kurt Sauer. St. Louis scratched Cam Janssen and Alex Pietrangelo.

• Before the game, Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney explained why he sent forward Mikkel Boedker to the American Hockey League on Wednesday:

Boedker

“Looking at the first five games, he was averaging eight-and-a-half minutes per game and for a 19-year-old that’s just not enough,” Maloney said. “Right now, with the mix of our group and Taylor Pyatt coming back, it was clear he was going to be in that fourth-line, extra-forward category for now … and we’re just determined that if you’re young and not playing here on a regular basis, you are going to go down to San Antonio. In Mike’s case, I think it will be good for him to get all of that situational playing time. He really wasn’t on any special teams at this stage right now and you can’t develop players that way...It's just a really hard league for a 19-year-old. If he was 22, he’d still be here as an extra player."