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Wolski leads Avalanche past Lightning

Nov 30, 2008 - 5:42 AM By Derek Nagy PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DENVER (Ticker) -- Wojtek Wolski scored a pair of goals off rebounds in the first period and Marek Svatos had three assists as the Colorado Avalanche held on to record a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.

Wolski's performance led the Avalanche to the win despite the absence of captain Joe Sakic, who was scratched with a back injury. He is out indefinitely.

"It's really hard, you have to kind of control the rebounds, so I just tried to get my stick on it," Wolski said of his two scores.

Colorado built a 3-0 lead in the first period and a 4-1 advantage in the third before Tampa Bay made it interesting, scoring a pair of goals late in the third session to cut Colorado's lead to just one goal. The Lightning have lost four in a row.

"There's some individuals that, every loose puck they lose, they're not going to the net. Almost like some guys are collecting a paycheck right now and that's a sad statement. We have to face reality," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said.

Andrew Raycroft started for the Avalanche for the first time since October 30 and had 17 saves and improved to 3-1 this season.

"We've got to climb up the ladder and we've won two of the last three. We're going in the right direction, we have a lot of injuries and guys are stepping up," Raycroft said.

Colorado has alternated wins and losses in each of its last five games.

Defenseman Jordan Leopold gave the Avalanche an early 1-0 lead. Svatos got open with the puck in the middle of the ice, split two Tampa Bay defenders and put a pass right on the stick of Leopold, who faked right and put a wrister past Olaf Kolzig.

Wolski's first goal of the night came after Svatos won the faceoff and skated into the crease. He fired a shot that Kolzig stopped with his skate, but the rebound came right to Wolski who buried the second chance to give the Avalanche a 2-0 lead.

He tallied again just over 90 seconds later. Svatos again put a shot that Kolzig initially stopped, but the rebound kicked right to Wolski, who put a shot back on net and barely slid the puck along the goal line and into the far post.

"We came prepared and we threw the puck at the net and the goalie gave us a few rebound chances. We've got guys who can score goals and we did that in the first period," Svatos said.

Tampa Bay got on the board on a goal by captain Vincent Lecavalier, his team-leading 10th of the season. Ryan Malone and Steven Stamkos both scored on the power play in the third as the Lightning's comeback fell short.

Mike Smith started the second period in net after Kolzig allowed those three first-period goals.

"It's evident that we're struggling, especially in trying to find ways to win hockey games," Smith said. "The little plays in games mean so much, and tonight we didn't do a lot of those plays very well."