By The Associated Press

BOSTON – Ladislav Nagy was there with a pass when the Phoenix Coyotes tied it up. He handled the winning goal all by himself.

Nagy picked up the puck deep in the Phoenix zone and skated the length of the ice before wristing it in just 30 seconds into overtime to give the Coyotes a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday. He also assisted when Mike Johnson scored in regulation for his fifth goal in three games.

“I have a lot of confidence in Mike Johnson and (Jamie) Lundmark right now,” said Nagy, who has nine goals and 22 points in his last 13 games. “Everything is going in for us. So we’ve got to keep going.”

The Coyotes have won three consecutive games, with Johnson scoring twice in each of the previous two. He had just one on Sunday, pushing a rebound through Hannu Toivonen’s pads to tie the game just 24 seconds into a Phoenix power play and 66 seconds into the third period.

“We’ve been giving a solid effort throughout the game all season, so we’re not concerned going into the third period down one goal,” Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said.

“Nags has been solid. He’s getting better and more confident every night. Both him and Johnson are scoring a lot of points and killing penalties. The team is relying on them right now.”

Johnson took a puck off his neck and left the game with 5:06 remaining in regulation. Gretzky said he was OK and ready to take the next shift in overtime.

But Nagy made sure he didn’t have to, taking the puck near the circles in his zone and skating down the ice, drawing a defender and then wristing a shot past Toivonen’s glove hand just 30 seconds into overtime. The puck appeared to deflect off defenseman David Tanabe’s skate.

“So I was a little lucky,” Nagy said. “But it went in, so we won.”

Curtis Joseph stopped 18 shots for the Coyotes, who hadn’t won in Boston since 1996. Toivonen made 30 saves for the Bruins, who lost their third consecutive game.

“Hannu gave us a chance to win tonight,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “He made some key saves. He kept us in the game.”

Toivonen, who had been the backup to reigning Calder Trophy winner Andrew Raycroft, has played four of the previous five games. Sullivan said he didn’t know who would start on Thursday night against Minnesota. Brian Leetch scored a power-play goal for Boston just 2:29 into the game, but all of the chances after that seemed to be for Phoenix.

The Coyotes appeared to even it with 10:34 left in the first, but the goal was waved off because former Bruins forward Dave Scatchard bumped into Toivonen when the puck was on its way. With 2:30 left in the second, Toivonen knocked a puck off the goal line and into the post, where Milan Jurcina cleared it away.

“Their goaltender made some key saves in the second period,” Gretzky said. “If not for that, we could have been tied up.”

Blackhawks 5, Thrashers 4

ATLANTA – Pavel Vorobiev had two goals in regulation and scored in the second round of a shootout, leading the Chicago Blackhawks to a 5-4 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers. Michael Holmqvist beat Atlanta goaltender Michael Garnett for the Blackhawks’ third and deciding score in the five-round shootout.

Sabres 3, Wild 2

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Mike Grier snapped a tie with 3:32 remaining and Martin Biron set a Sabres record by winning his 10th straight start in Buffalo’s 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild. Grier netted the winner when he tipped Chris Drury’s shot while standing in front of the net. Drury got the tying tally in the second period on a goal originally credited to Grier.

Blue Jackets 3, Devils 2

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Bryan Berard scored off a pass from Sergei Fedorov with 13.6 seconds left in overtime, giving the Columbus Blue Jackets a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils.

The Blue Jackets hadn’t gotten a shot in the extra period before Berard slipped around Devils defenseman Paul Martin in the right circle and beat Martin Brodeur for his sixth goal of the season.

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