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Hejduk's controversial goal lifts Avalanche past Lightning

Dec 19, 2008 - 5:11 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Just when the Tampa Bay Lightning thought things could not have gotten worse, they did.

Andrew Raycroft made 37 saves in regulation and Milan Hejduk scored the decisive goal in the second round of a shootout to hand the Colorado Avalanche a controversial 2-1 victory over the Lightning on Thursday.

Hejduk's backhanded attempt was initially saved, but the referees promptly conversed and allowed the goal after Tampa Bay goaltender Mike Smith let go of his stick to block the puck while diving to the left side of the net.

"It was a heck of a hockey game," Colorado coach Tony Granato said. "For the refs to make that call, it's a gutsy call, but it's the right call. If the goalie throws his stick in an attempt to stop a penalty shot or shootout opportunity, it's an automatic goal."

Mike Murphy, the NHL's senior VP of hockey operations, echoed those thoughts after the game.

"(The referees) huddle to make the decision to see if they felt the stick was thrown - and if a goal stick is thrown, as outlined in Rule 26-4, and if the officials on the ice decide that the goalie has thrown his stick at the puck area or at the shooter and disrupted the shot, they can award a goal and that's what they did in this case," Murphy said in a phone interview from Toronto.

Paul Stastny tallied in regulation to help the Avalanche improve to 23-7-0 in their last 30 games against Eastern Conference teams.

Jeff Halpern netted his first goal of the season for the Lightning, who have dropped 11 of their last 12 games.

Raycroft denied Jussi Jokinen's wrist shot and Smith stopped Wojtek Wolski's backhanded attempt in the first round of the shootout.

Captain Vincent Lecavalier was then stymied by Raycroft before Hejduk was the beneficiary of a puzzling goal.

After a short delay on account of various objects thrown on the ice by enraged Tampa Bay fans and several heated debates between officials and several players, Raycroft denied Martin St. Louis to send the Lightning to perhaps their most deflating loss of the season.

"It was a good win, a good road win and a good shootout win," Raycroft said. "(The defense) was great tonight. We didn't take any penalties. We took one in the first and we killed it off pretty well and that makes everyone's life easier. Other than that, we were solid."

Smith turned aside 34 saves, but fell to 1-6 in shootouts this season.

"I know it's a quick game and things happen fast, but there's four refs on the ice - four, not one," Smith said. "They have the angles covered. I made the save and then I had to drop the stick cause my stick was going to come up in the air. You can't make that call at that point in the game, you can't.

"The save was already made. It was after the fact the stick went to the ice. That hurts. That sums up the start of the season, I guess."

Tampa Bay fell to 2-8-5 under interim head coach Rick Tocchet, who took over for the dismissed Barry Melrose midway through November.

"I don't know right now what's going on," Tocchet said. "I was trying to find out who made the call and I couldn't get an answer. We're trying to talk to the league office how that process works so it doesn't happen again for another team.

"My phone's been blowing up by NHL people that are friends of mine, who said that's a terrible call. I know the referees, you can't blame the referees every night. They're good guys. Tim Peel's a good guy, but it's a tough one to swallow. We need wins so when something like this happens, you better be 100 percent."

Stastny opened the scoring 3:46 into the first period, converting passes from Ryan Smyth and Hejduk while sitting on the doorstep.

Halpern evened the game 7:35 into the following session when he fired a wrist shot past Raycroft from the left faceoff circle.

"I felt good, pretty nervous before the game," said Halpern, who was playing his first game of the season after being sidelined with a knee injury.

"I'm not exactly where I want to be as far as the way I played, but I was pretty happy to be back. I made some dumb plays and I made some good plays. I think the good plays are encouraging."