Lightning finding success on road
Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, and Brad Richards each had a goal and an assist as Tampa Bay beat the New York Islanders, 4-3, yesterday in Uniondale, N.Y., for its fifth straight victory.
The Lightning have won the first two games on their road trip after splitting a four-game trip earlier this month.
"We started feeling better about ourselves on our early January road trip," Richards said. "Everybody thought we'd lose all four games, and we won our last two. That got us on a bit of a roll. Right now, we're just barely back in the playoffs, and we have to continue to be better."
Vaclav Prospal had a goal and two assists for Tampa Bay, and Johan Holmqvist stopped 33 shots for his third straight win against New York.
"As bad as we were in the first half, we were still around .500," St. Louis said. "Right now, we're on this streak because everybody's chipping in."
Alexei Yashin, Viktor Kozlov, and Trent Hunter scored for the Islanders, losers of two in a row and winless in eight of their past 10 (2-7-1) -- including four straight losses at home.
Red Wings 2, Canadiens 0 -- Dominik Hasek made 23 saves to earn his sixth shutout this season and 74th of his career as host Detroit won its fourth straight.
Sharks 3, Avalanche 1 -- Patrick Marleau had a goal and two assists, and host San Jose's vaunted power play produced every score. All-Stars Jonathan Cheechoo and Joe Thornton also scored man-advantage goals for the Sharks, who have won six of seven on the strength of the NHL's best power play.
Stars 3, Kings 1 -- Stu Barnes and Niklas Hagman scored power-play goals, Marty Turco stopped 20 shots, and injury-depleted Dallas snapped a three-game losing streak with the victory at home. The Stars were without five regulars, including top offensive threat Mike Modano, who missed his 19th consecutive game because of a hip/groin injury.
Predators 5, Flames 3 -- David Legwand and Martin Erat each had a goal and an assist, lifting host Nashville to its sixth straight victory.
Coyotes 5, Blues 4 -- Ladislav Nagy scored the deciding goal in a shootout to lead host Phoenix.
