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Prospal helps Lightning beat Hurricanes in shootout

Jan 21, 2007 - 6:21 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Vaclav Prospal gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a chance at continuing their shootout success, then took matters into his own hand.

Prospal assisted on the tying goal late in regulation, then produced the only tally of the shootout to lift the Lightning to their seventh win in eight games, a 6-5 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Prospal and Martin St. Louis each had a goal and two assists for Tampa Bay, which improved to 5-1 in shootouts. St. Louis set a franchise record for consecutive games with at least one point (14) when he assisted on Prospal's tally 6:51 into the contest.

Carolina had taken a 5-4 lead at 9:31 of the third period. After Scott Walker flung the puck toward the net from just beyond the left faceoff circle, it deflected off Andrew Ladd and past goaltender Marc Denis.

But Tampa Bay tied it with just 2:54 left in regulation as Prospal laid a soft pass into the left circle for defenseman Filip Kuba, whose slap shot flew past netminder Cam Ward.

"It turned out perfect for a breakout," Prospal said. "We got a good first pass out of our end and Kuba followed the play, and the defenseman came up on me and I just slid the puck to Kuba. He skated right up to it and put it past Ward."

After a fruitless overtime, Denis blanked Ray Whitney, Rod Brind'Amour and Justin Williams in the shootout. Ward was equal to the task, denying Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards - a shootout hero against New Jersey on Thursday - and St. Louis.

In the fourth round, Denis denied Eric Staal, who had scored twice in regulation. But Prospal beat Ward with a wrist shot that glanced off the goalie's stick.

"It's good to win against a divisional rival," Prospal said. "We managed to come from behind to win the game. Even though it was in the shootout, it is still a W for us. We're very happy with the result."

"It was fitting for (Prospal) to score that goal," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "Even the way he played tonight, he made a big play on the tying goal, he was involved all night offensively and defensively, and it was fitting for him to get it done at the end."

The Lightning twice trailed by two goals in the second period but rallied to tie the game at 4-4 on St. Louis' league-leading 30th tally of the campaign. Lecavalier also netted his 30th in the period.

"We just stayed with it and made some big plays at key times to get back in the game," St. Louis said.

The Hurricanes and coach Peter Laviolette were frustrated they could not protect their leads.

"Obviously, you're irritated when you don't get the points and you don't get the win," Laviolette said.

"We could have done some things better," Walker added. "When (Denis) is on, he's really on. I thought we had a lot of jump and a lot of things were working. The main thing is that we've got to get two points, and we didn't get it tonight."