Lightning Notebook

Sore Schwab out for week

By TIM BUCKLEY

©St. Petersburg Times, published December 24, 1997

NEW YORK -- Lightning coach Jacques Demers intended to play backup goalie Corey Schwab against St. Louis on Monday night and usual starter Daren Puppa against the New York Rangers on Tuesday.

Even after Schwab left Monday's game with a pulled groin, and Puppa had to come off the bench to start the second period in a 2-2 tie with the Blues, Demers stuck to his guns.

Actually, his No. 1 gun.

"I didn't even ask him," Demers said of his decision to start Puppa, who had not played in back-to-back games since Games 1 and 2 of the Lightning's first-round playoff series with Philadelphia two seasons ago (i.e., not since undergoing surgery last season to repair a herniated disc in his back.

Demers said he felt for Schwab, who was unbeaten in two starts before Monday: "One thing that has not let us down is we have been getting outstanding goaltending. If he was not hurt, Schwab (who gave up a first-period goal to St. Louis' Pierre Turgeon) would have gotten that save."

Lightning trainer Curtis Bell said Schwab was apparently injured moving across the crease for his first save several minutes into the opening period. He finished the period but is expected to be out at least a week with a strain of the same muscle he hurt during training camp.

SHORT NOTICE: With Schwab hurt, the Lightning called up No. 3 goalie Derek Wilkinson to join the team in New York.

Wilkinson had just bused to Indianapolis with Cleveland, his International Hockey League team. He caught a 7 a.m. flight Tuesday to New York, and dressed as Puppa's backup. Today, he flies back to Cleveland to pick up clothes. On Christmas Day, he flies back to Tampa.

"Planes, trains and automobiles," said Wilkinson, who has played nine NHL games but has yet to win. "You never know what will happen."

When we last heard from Wilkinson, he had just had surgery to repair a partially torn patella tendon and clean out chips in his right knee, which he hurt in the preseason. After recovering, he was one of three goalies in Cleveland. (Another was ex-Lightning goalie Pat Jablonski, since recalled to Carolina). In six games, Wilkinson was 3-3-0 with a 2.64 GAA.

ODDS AND ENDS: Alex Selivanov's brother, mother and father arrived in New York from Moscow on Tuesday to watch the Lightning wing play the Rangers, a team against which he has 10 career goals. ... Defenseman Jamie Huscroft was back in the lineup and Corey Cross sat as a healthy scratch. "(Huscroft) hasn't played in four games, plus we expect it to be a physical game," said Demers, whose club carries eight defensemen -- one more than he feels it needs. Defenseman David Shaw was the team's other scratch. He has not played since Nov. 28. ... The struggling Rangers called up rookies Marc Savard and Vladimir Vorobiev from the minors for Tuesday's game. Right wing Alexei Kovalev was a healthy scratch, amid rumors he will be dealt when the NHL holiday trade moratorium is lifted Sunday.