



Coyotes goalie Jason LaBarbera joked that he was in "la-la land" Tuesday night before being pressed into action because of an injury to starter Mike Smith -- but said that he was mentally into the game.

Still, there is no way to prepare for entering a game early in the third period.

"Your heart skips a beat a little bit, but you don't have a lot of time to think about it," he said. "You've just go to out there and do your job."

After the 2-1 over Florida, LaBarbera and Coyotes defeated Carolina 4-3 on the back end of two in a row on the road. While Smith remains day to day with a groin injury, LaBarbera is preparing for Friday's game against the surging St. Louis Blues.

"I'm taking it a game at a time and not get too caught up in it," LaBarbera said. "Right now, it's an opportunity to get some games in and give the guys a chance to win.

"It's funny how things work. You're sitting there, and you really don't know when you're going to play again, and all of a sudden, you're probably going to play a bunch of games in a short period of time. It kind of brings back years ago when I played all the time, so it'll be a fun challenge."

Things will not get any easier against the Blues, a team that is powered by three forwards - T.J. Oshie, Alexander Steen and David Backes - who have scored 33 of the team's 84 goals.

"If you look at their lineup, they're solid right throughout," coach Dave Tippett said. "They have players in the right positions, right roles, their defense is solid, and their goaltending has been real solid for them also.

"They come in very confident group, a hard-working group ... that's come together well and played very well under Ken. We'll have our hands full."

The revitalized Blues are sixth in the Western Conference and 13-3-4 since Ken Hitchcock took over as coach earlier this season.

Forward Raffi Torres said the four road points were huge, and that the team proved appoint with the wins.

"I think we're showing right now that no matter how tired we are, if we play the way we need to play, we can still have a positive outcome," he said.

Swedes team up

Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson welcomed fellow Swede blueliner David Rundblad to the Coyotes earlier this week, and although they played on the same teams in international competition, Thursday night was the first time they had been paired.

"We wanted to get Rundblad in and up and going and have a look at him," Tippett said. "We thought the best way to do that was put him with Larsson and just see how they went. You could tell he's got a high skill level. He's a young player, so still's got some things to learn, but so far so good.

"He jumped in, he got an assist. We've seen progress that Ekman-Larsson has gone through in the last year;, we expect the same thing from Rundblad."

Power play upswing

After suffering through an extended power-play drought the Coyotes scored three in the past two games. And with the return of defenseman Rusty Klesla, the penalty-kill also is starting to move back toward better form.

"Our power play is starting to chip in and get some goals for us, which is good see," Tippett said. "(Rusty) Klesla really helps our PK in coming back. Every day, you kind of pound away and hope that they're gonna have an effect on the game; luckily, the last couple games, we've had a positive effect."