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Richards' decisive goal lifts Lighting past Coyotes

Feb 14, 2007 - 6:02 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Even with two All-Stars on the roster, the Tampa Bay Lightning turned to Brad Richards in the clutch.

Richards had the decisive goal and Eric Perrin added the clinching tally as the Lightning posted a 5-3 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes.

Vincent Lecavalier had two goals and an assist and fellow All-Star Martin St. Louis tallied and set up two others for Tampa Bay, which has beaten Phoenix six straight times. The goals by Lecavalier give him an NHL-leading 37 for the season.

"I'm happy the way things are going now," Lecavalier said. "It feels good. Every year I tell myself I want to do a little bit better production-wise."

With the game tied at 3-3 entering the third period, Richards scored his 20th goal of the season on the power-play just 84 seconds into the session.

"My play is starting to come together a little bit more now," Richards said. "We're winning some games so it makes it easier on my mind."

"Lecavalier has always been great, but this year he's been more consistent," Lighting coach John Tortorella said.

With 8:15 left in the final period, Perrin received a cross-ice pass from Ruslan Fedotenko and flipped a shot past goaltender Mikael Tellqvist.

Fedotenko had two assists and Vaclav Prospal added three for Tampa Bay, which has won three straight on home ice and five of seven overall.

Johan Holmqvist stopped 23 shots for the Lightning, who improved to 32-4-2 when they score three or more goals.

Mike Zigomanis, Oleg Saprykin and defenseman Derek Morris each tallied and Tellqvist made 22 saves for the Coyotes, who have lost three straight and six of their last eight games.

"We battled back against a very good hockey club," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "Obviously there are some great hockey players over there. Their goalie made a couple of key saves when he needed to. They definitely deserved to win that hockey game."