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Pitkanen nets game-winner as Hurricanes edge Lightning

Jan 4, 2009 - 4:56 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Defenseman Joni Pitkanen and Justin Williams each recorded a goal and an assist to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

Chad LaRose added a tally and blue-liner Dennis Seidenberg collected two assists for the Hurricanes, who have won three straight.

"We're starting to trust each other," LaRose said. "We're starting to have big wins here and getting to work. A hard 60 (minutes) every night is where we've got to get to."

The Lightning jumped to a 2-0 lead early in the first period as Ryan Craig netted his first goal of the season at 5:05 and Vaclav Prospal followed 95 seconds later with his eighth tally.

"We're not looking for (personal) goals right now unless they lead to victories," Craig said. "Up 2-0, we played so well the first 10 minutes. But we need wins. We took penalties, they got a power-play goal, but we had chances. (Goaltender Mike Smith) held us in there all game long. We've just got to generate more, and for whatever reason, we didn't do that tonight."

"We got up 2-0, (but) we don't have the right to get cocky at that time," Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis said. "We've just got to keep playing hard, disciplined with urgency. We had a little letdown in that department and it cost us the momentum, and they got it."

St. Louis knows what the Lightning need to do in order to turn things around.

"We've just got to keep plugging away and get some wins, get on a roll again. There's plenty of time. We've just got to keep at it. It's frustrating. Everybody's frustrated, but nobody's going to feel sorry for us. We have to keep playing."

Carolina responded in kind, halving the deficit on Williams' power-play goal with 5:14 left in the first and forging a tie when LaRose beat Smith 71 seconds later.

"We had a pretty good shift," LaRose said. "I just went to the net. It hit me off the knee high and landed up in the back of the net. Kind of a lucky bounce, but I'll take it."

Captain Rod Brind'Amour set up the first goal with a wrist shot from the slot. The puck deflected off the skate of Williams, who was standing at the left side of the crease, and into the net.

"We expected their first 10 minutes to be probably their best of the game, and they're a team that is playing very well," Williams said. "Unfortunately, we got down early, but we got a big power-play goal and followed it up with another good shift. We controlled the game from the middle of the first period on. We didn't give them very much after we got the lead and closed the game out."

Pitkanen scored his fourth tally of the season at 6:41 of the second, when he took a feed from Williams and fired a wrist shot from the left point that slammed off the far goalpost and skipped behind Smith to provide the winning margin.

The veteran Brind'Amour played a part in the game-winner as well, standing in front and screening Smith as Pitkanen's laser sailed by.

Cam Ward stopped 17 shots en route to his seventh win in nine starts. The native of Saskatchewan has allowed a total of four goals in his last three games.

Smith finished with 25 saves for Tampa Bay, which fell to 0-2-1 following a season-high three-game winning streak.