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Richards helps Lightning beat Canadiens in shootout

Dec 12, 2007 - 5:33 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Brad Richards continued to show his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates how it's done in a shootout.

Richards scored the decisive goal in the second round of the bonus format as the Lightning posted a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.

Vincent Lecavalier and tough guy Andre Roy scored in regulation and Marc Denis won his first game of the season for Tampa Bay, which snapped a four-game road losing streak.

Montreal has lost five of six and now has a six-game losing streak here.

After each team failed to convert in the first round of the shootout, Richards skated in and blasted a shot high over the pad of rookie goaltender Carey Price to give the Lightning the advantage.

"I saw some space above his blocker," Richards said. "I just wanted to get off a quick shot before Price could react."

It was Richards' 12th tally in 22 career shootout attempts. Denis, who won his first game since March 22 against the New Jersey Devils, took care of the rest.

"It was a great feeling for me," Denis said. "It's been a tough year and I haven't played often. Getting my first win here in Montreal was special for me."

After stopping a shot by Tomas Plekanec in the first round, the Montreal native made a pad save on Andrei Kostitsyn before denying Canadiens captain Saku Koivu by stretching out his right leg and preventing the puck from crossing the goal line with his skate.

"It was a desperation save, I just pushed my leg out," Denis said. "I was lucky to get it."

The 10-year veteran netminder, who stopped 25 shots and improved to 8-2 in shootouts, has knocked away an incredible 35-of-37 attempts in the bonus format.

After a scoreless first period, the teams quickly got to work with man-advantage goals in the second.

Just 47 seconds into the session, Alexei Kovalev one-timed a shot past the right skate of Denis as the goaltender appeared to be distracted by the broken blade of the Russian's stick in front of him. It was Kovalev's team-leading ninth power-play goal of the season.

However, just 62 seconds later, Lecavalier scored when his one-timer from 50 feet out rocketed past the glove of Price, evening the game at 1-1.

"You want to get the next goal as quickly as possible," Lecavalier said. "It felt good pulling even and then taking the lead soon after."

Lecavalier, who leads the league in points, has 20 goals this season - 11 coming in the second period.

The Lightning took their first lead at 11:02, when Canadiens defenseman Ryan O'Byrne lost control of the puck as he skated toward his own net. The miscue gave Roy the opportunity to gather the puck on the doorstep, spin and fire a shot past Price to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 advantage.

"That was huge. I was at the end of my shift and was pretty exhausted," Roy said. "I gave a last push (trailing the play). I think O'Byrne just lost it and I took it, turned around and tried to go top shelf, and it went in. So I was like, 'All right.' It's great to score, especially here."

It was Roy's second tally of the season and 30th career.

The Canadiens waited until late in the third to knot the contest, as Plekanec blasted a shot past Denis with 4:36 left.

"We should memorize the way we played in the third and play 60 minutes like that the next time," Kovalev said. "It seems whenever we're down by a goal, we play with more intensity. Instead, when we take a lead, we start getting nervous and try to protect the lead."