A couple of losses didn't ruin Wayne Gretzky's sense of humor.
"To get my first ... it's nice," Gretzky said of his initial NHL coaching victory. "Scotty Bowman's record (1,244 wins) is pretty safe."
The Phoenix Coyotes rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.
Gretzky, the NHL's career leading scorer, waited three games as a coach to celebrate a victory. Winning was something that seemed to come naturally during a 20-year playing career that included four Stanley Cup championships with Edmonton.
The Coyotes' second loss -- in Los Angeles on Thursday -- was accompanied by an uncharacteristic blunder by the Great One, who signed off on a lineup card that took forward Fredrik Sjostrom off the roster even though he was in uniform and scheduled to play.
In the glow of a win in his home debut, Gretzky laughed that one off, too.
"My wife asked me about the scoresheet," he said. "I said, `I'm in good company. Pat Quinn did it, and so did Ken Hitchcock, so I don't feel so bad.'"
The Coyotes were in high spirits after this win for several reasons.
Former Winnipeg Jets star Bobby Hull and his son, Brett, were honored during a pregame ceremony to un-retire the elder Hull's No. 9 so that Brett, a Coyotes right wing, could wear it for the franchise that moved from Manitoba to Arizona in 1996.
In addition, Phoenix acquired left wing Geoff Sanderson in a trade with Columbus, strengthening an offense that has scored six goals so far. Another boost came when left wing Ladislav Nagy, who Gretzky believes has the moves to rank among the elite scorers, was activated from the injured list before the game.
"It was huge, obviously," captain Shane Doan said about the excitement.
"There's a lot of emotion in a home opener, and you want to come out controlled, work hard and stay disciplined enough, and we stayed with it."
Henrik Zetterberg had a goal and three assists and the Detroit Red Wings scored five power-play goals in a 6-3 win over the Calgary Flames on Sunday.
Nicklas Lidstrom, Brendan Shanahan, Mikael Samuelsson, and Robert Lang each had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings. Pavel Datsyuk added a goal and Jason Williams collected two assists.
Roman Hamrlik had a goal and an assist for the Flames and Rhett Warrener and Chuck Kobasew got the team's other two tallies.
The Red Wings were 3-for-7 with the man-advantage in the period. Detroit finished the game 5-for-9 on the power-play.
Kings 2, Wild 1, OT
In Los Angeles, Pavol Demitra scored on a 40-foot wrist shot with 1:29 left in overtime and Eric Belanger also scored, leading the Kings over Minnesota.
Tim Gleason sent Craig Conroy into the Minnesota zone with the puck and he fed it to Demitra, who stepped around Wild defenseman Nick Schultz and beat Manny Fernandez to the glove side for his second goal of the season. Fernandez made 30 saves in his season debut after missing the first two games with back and neck spasms. Mathieu Garon stopped 24 shots for Los Angeles.
Minnesota had an 8-1 advantage in shots on net by the time Wes Walz opened the scoring at 6:52 of the first period with an unassisted goal.
Blue Jackets 3, Blackhawks 2
In Chicago, Bryan Berard had a goal and an assist, and Marc Denis made 30 saves as the Columbus defeated Chicago for its first win of the season. Jody Shelley and Jason Chimera also scored for the Blue Jackets, who had just three goals in its first two games.
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