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Claude Lemieux scores in the second and third to beat Tampa Bay 3-2.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 15, 2000
PHOENIX -- The old man showed the young Lightning how it's done Thursday night.
Claude Lemieux, 35, in his third game since signing with the Coyotes, had three points, including his first two goals of the season, to spark Phoenix to a 3-2 victory before an announced 11,944 at America West Arena and give him 701 career points.
Lemieux's second goal, 6:24 into the third period, on a snap shot from the slot that beat Kevin Weekes high to the glove side, was the winner. His goal at 7:37 of the second tied the score at 2 and was his 700th point.
It appeared the Lightning tied the game with 26.1 seconds remaining on Vinny Lecavalier's goal, but the referees ruled a hand pass by Martin St. Louis was part of the play. St. Louis caught a pass and tried to drop it, but the puck rolled straight to Lecavalier.
"It was a hand pass," St. Louis said. "If I get it down and pass it right away, it's a goal But it happened so fast. When I put it down, it didn't stay by me."
The loss gives Tampa Bay, which was 0-for-6 on the power play and was outshot 36-22 (including 12-4 in a Coyotes-heavy third period), just one win in its past nine games and snapped the Coyotes' three-game winless streak.
Weekes played in his first game after missing three with a sprained right knee. But the Lightning lost defenseman Petr Svoboda with 3:21 left in the first period because of a concussion sustained when he was checked into the boards by Shane Doan. The force of the check pushed Svoboda's stick across his nose and left a bloody cut.
The Lightning came out with lots of energy in the first period and had the better of the play until Phoenix's flurry in the last two minutes helped them outshoot Tampa Bay 12-10.
Phoenix goaltender Sean Burke, who came into the game with an NHL-best .937 save percentage, kept the Lightning at bay early with good saves on slap shots from Cory Sarich and Lecavalier.
The Coyotes took a 1-0 lead on the power play 5:54 in, when Jeremy Roenick got his first goal in six games and Lemieux, a mainstay for the Devils last season, the second assist. The slap shot found its way through a thick screen and hit the inside of the post on the long side and deflected in. It was Phoenix's first power play goal in 26 tries.
The Lightning got it back 19 seconds later on a pretty goal by Fredrik Modin, his 14th of the season. The left wing swung around the goal and, despite being hacked from behind, wristed a wicked shot into the top corner from the slot.
Burke had to be alert at 10:20 when Mike Johnson, charging the slot, redirected a pass from St. Louis. But the goaltender stayed square to the play and made the stop.
Modin tried another wraparound. Though again tied up from behind he got off a shot along the ice Burke had to scramble to stop. The goaltender stopped Pavel Kubina's slap shot with his toe.
The tide turned somewhat in the final minutes. Phoenix buzzed and Weekes was brilliant as he slid to his right and made a chest save on Lemieux, who was on the tail end of a give-and go.
The Lightning came out flying again in the second period and earned a 2-1 lead on Johnson's goal at 4:39. But it took the entire line of Lecavalier and wings Johnson and St. Louis to make it happen.
The sequence began when Johnson intercepted a pass at the Coyotes blue line and fed Lecavalier, who fired a backhander Burke stopped. St. Louis followed the puck to the back boards and fed Johnson, who scored from the slot.
Phoenix made it 2-2 at 7:37 on Lemieux's first goal and 700th career point. It was a pretty play that began with Roenick, at the Lightning blue line, feeding Keith Tkachuk, who hit Lemieux with a short, but crisp, cross pass that opened the net.
On the winner, Lemieux took a pass from Ossi Vaananen in the high slot, moved in unguarded and scored on a wrist shot.
"We've got to get that third goal and pressure them," Lecavalier said.
UP NEXT: Lightning at L.A. Kings, 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
TV: Sunshine.