The Tampa Bay Lightning rattled off a franchise-record worth of shots against the Florida Panthers and still couldn’t skate off with a win.
The Edmonton Oilers kept their total at a minimum, but managed to find the net again and again in a most-efficient victory at the expense of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Under interim head coach Rick Tocchet, the Lightning fired 52 shots before settling for a 4-3 shootout loss to the Panthers on Tuesday night. Tampa Bay has fallen in the tiebreaker in both of Tocchet’s games running the bench since he took over for the fired Barry Melrose on Friday.
The Lightning have lost five in a row overall.
“That’s a game right there that we’re going to build on,” said losing goalie Mike Smith, who stopped 33 shots. “Just shows how we can play when we play with passion.”
The same can be said for the Oilers, who made the most of 19 shots in a 7-2 win at Columbus on Tuesday.
get that fifth goal. We kind of gave ourselves some breathing room.”
In other NHL games Tuesday, it was: Carolina 2, Montreal 1; Minnesota 2, Pittsburgh 1 in a shootout; Chicago 3, Phoenix 2 in a shootout; and Calgary 4, Colorado 1.
At Columbus, Ohio, the Oilers gave up 20 more shots to Columbus than they had, but Sheldon Souray, Andrew Cogliano, Tom Gilbert and Lubomir Visnovsky each had a goal and an assist. Marc Pouliot and Dustin Penner also scored for the Oilers, who went a stretch of nearly 20 minutes without putting a puck on net.
They turned a close game into a rout with three goals in a span of 3:03 late in the third period.
Kristian Huselius and Rick Nash each had a goal and assist for Columbus, which owns the NHL’s poorest power-play unit that went 1-for-7 against Edmonton.
“You can’t live on the negative play of our special teams and win,” Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We’re letting in too many goals – bottom line.”
At Tampa, Fla., Bryan McCabe scored twice in regulation and Nathan Horton had the lone goal in a shootout for the Panthers, who have won three of four following a six-game losing streak. Tomas Vokoun made 49 saves, and David Booth added a goal.
oint. He had nine shots.
“It’s just one of those nights where when you’re not winning, those games seem to slip by,” Stamkos said. “We need to find a way to change that. I thought it was our best game in a while.”
Tampa Bay, which trailed by three goals in the second period, tied it at 3 when Steve Eminger snapped a 63-game goals drought with 2:51 left in the third.
“We got some great goaltending,” McCabe said. “We were lucky. The score didn’t quite dictate how we played. We were up 3-0, but they were outshooting us and outchancing us.”
That was a similar refrain for the Blue Jackets, who created scoring chances that were turned aside by Edmonton’s Dwayne Roloson.
“He was really on top of his game,” Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. “When your goalie outplays the other guy, it’s normally a good indication of the result.”
Hurricanes 2, Canadiens 1
At Raleigh, N.C., Sergei Samsonov and Ray Whitney scored 3 1/2 minutes apart in the third period to help Carolina rally.
Robert Lang scored for the Canadiens, who snapped a lengthy power-play drought yet lost for the third time in four games.
Montreal’s Carey Price made a career-high 46 saves and stopped the first 30 shots he faced.
Cam Ward made 28 saves for the Hurricanes, who have won two straight after dropping three in a row.
Wild 2, Penguins 1, SO
he only goal in the shootout and Minnesota benefited from a gift goal that the Penguins put into their own net. Pittsburgh’s six-game winning streak was snapped.
Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom, 3-0 in shootouts this season, stopped 24 of 25 shots before turning aside Petr Sykora, Alex Goligoski and Sidney Crosby in the tiebreaker.
NHL scoring leader Evgeni Malkin’s 13-game point streak ended for Pittsburgh. He had six goals and 21 assists during the streak.
Minnesota’s only goal in regulation was credited to Mikko Koivu at 7:57 of the first. The Penguins tied it 10 seconds later when Matt Cooke scored. It was the sixth goal allowed by Backstrom in five games.
Blackhawks 3, Coyotes 2, SO
At Glendale, Ariz., Nikolai Khabibulin made 36 saves through overtime, then stopped two shots in the shootout to lift Chicago.
Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews scored in the shootout and Sharp also had a goal in regulation for the Blackhawks, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Kris Versteeg also scored for Chicago.
Zbynek Michalek netted his first of the season and Shane Doan added the tying goal for the Coyotes, who lost their third straight.
Flames 4, Avalanche 1
At Calgary, Alberta, Rene Bourque, Adrian Aucoin, Jarome Iginla and David Moss scored for the host Flames, who blitzed Colorado with 51 shots. Peter Budaj made 47 saves in the loss.
l for the Avalanche, whose winning streak ended at three.
The Avalanche were without captain Joe Sakic (back) for a fourth straight game, but the team hopes he will return Thursday at home against Calgary.
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