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St. Louis scores in shootout as Lightning edge Capitals

Feb 16, 2007 - 5:40 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Martin St. Louis was more than willing to give fellow All-Star Vincent Lecavalier a little offensive help.

St. Louis netted the shootout clincher and Lecavalier increased his league-leading goals total to 39 with a pair in regulation as the Tampa Bay Lightning posted their seventh win in eight games, a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals.

The 2004 Hart and Art Ross Trophy winner, St. Louis scored the only tally of the shootout in the third round with a wrist shot that beat goaltender Brent Johnson to the glove side.

"Even though we went to overtime, I was confident we would win," St. Louis said. "I thought we had some good chances in overtime. We won the shootout again. I saw a little hole (to aim at) and went for it."

Matt Pettinger's attempt to prolong the game was turned aside by netminder Marc Denis, who made a stick save to help raise Tampa Bay's shootout record to 8-1 this season.

"Two points in the standings on a nightly basis is very precious," Denis said. "It was good to get back in there and get some work and some ice time, and I was very happy to be out there. Sometimes, you need to take a step up, take a leap forward and hopefully, that's step one of the leap forward."

The Lightning were closing in on a regulation victory before Dainius Zubrus tied it for the Capitals with 15 seconds remaining in the third period on a wrister from the slot that got under the crossbar.

"I think it was a pretty good game for us," said Zubrus, who also had an assist. "We had lots of shots and chances. There were a lot of good things to take from that game. We battled back the whole game. We didn't get the two points, but we thought we had a good game. We can't have our heads down."

Lecavalier forged a 1-1 tie during a power play at 2:44 of the second period with a one-timer from the right point that beat Johnson, who gave the Lightning the man advantage with a delay-of-game penalty.

Tampa Bay's Dan Boyle registered his 33rd assist of the season to become the franchise scoring leader among defensemen (210), snapping a tie with Pavel Kubina.

"We didn't play our best, but in the end, we got the two points," said Boyle, whose team climbed within one point of idle Atlanta (69) for the Southeast Division lead. "Certainly, the division lead is right there and we know the importance of home-ice advantage in the playoffs."

The 26-year-old Lecavalier netted a shorthander less than 4 1/2 minutes later, wristing a shot from the right faceoff circle by Johnson to the glove side for his 18th tally in 19 games.

Recording his second consecutive multi-goal game and fourth this season, Lecavalier moved five tallies ahead of Washington's Alex Ovechkin in the race for the Maurice Richard Trophy.

St. Louis added an assist in regulation and Denis made 36 saves for his first victory since January 20.

"You've got to give (Denis) high marks on his mental toughness and how he battled through it," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "He was the difference. I thought we did a pretty good job on a couple of their big guys until the third period. We didn't play well.

"Our second 20 minutes, we played really well. I thought we started to play with more intensity. The third period, we were trying but just couldn't get things accomplished, and that's where Marc is the difference."

Washington opened the scoring at 9:07 of the first period, when Alexander Semin's wrister from the left circle deflected off a defender and past Denis' pads. It was his 30th goal of the season and 14th with the man advantage.

Making his first appearance since January 26 because of Olaf Kolzig's knee injury, Johnson stopped 27 shots for the Capitals, who fell to 9-15-4 on the road.

"Not playing in two weeks, I felt a little tired in the first period," Johnson said. "But I felt really good going into the shootout. Marc Denis had a terrific game at the other end. If he didn't make some of the saves that he did, then it could've been a completely different game."

"You still have to go out there and produce in the shootout," Washington coach Glen Hanlon said after his team fell to 1-7 in the bonus format. "Maybe it's a hard one right now to evaluate, but I guess we should be fortunate because it didn't look like we were going to come out of here with a point."