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Wednesday, Jan. 5 10:00pm ET
Lowly Lightning, Canucks fittingly battle to draw | |||||
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BOX SCORE
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Instead of raising his arms, Vincent Lecavalier was left shaking his head. Lecavalier was thwarted Wednesday night during overtime of the Tampa Bay Lightning's 3-3 tie with the Vancouver Canucks. He cut in alone on the net and just as he was ready to shoot, a diving Canucks defenseman Ed Jovanovski poked the puck off of Lecavalier's stick. "I thought I had more time than I thought," said Lecavalier, the Lightning's second-leading scorer. "He dove and I tried to get the backhand away and he poked it. ... We had lots of scoring chances in overtime and we couldn't capitalize on it." It was a result no one seemed happy with, in a battle of two of the NHL's worst teams, as the Canucks record dropped to 12-18-8, while the Lightning are 10-21-8. "It's frustrating. These are the games that you've got to win," said Vancouver's Markus Naslund, who scored the game-tying goal with 9:50 left in the third period. "I thought we had a lot of chances. It's just that we can't get it in right now." Pavel Kubina had a goal and an assist and Bryan Muir and Fredrik Modin also scored for the Lightning, who snapped a seven-game losing streak, but remained winless in nine games (0-7-2). Tampa Bay goalie Dan Cloutier, stopped 35 shots as the Lightning earned their first point in seven visits to Vancouver. Alexander Mogilny and Peter Schaefer scored 32 seconds apart to give the Canucks a brief 2-1 lead in the second period. Vancouver, now 1-9-2 in its last 12 games, managed to score more than two regulation goals for only the second time in 17 games. The game came down to blown opportunities. The Lightning squandered 1-0 and 3-2 leads, while the Canucks' power-play, ranked 24th in the NHL, went 0-for-8 with the man advantage, including a 73-second two-man-advantage midway through the second period. Naslund finally settled the score when he twisted and turned, eluding two Tampa Bay defenders, and snapped a 25-foot shot through a crowd, beating Cloutier to tie it at 3. Naslund's goal came five minutes after Muir scored a weak goal, beating Felix Potvin through the legs with a shot from just inside the Canucks blue line. "It was embarrassing, I thought, to let them beat us. So it was good that we tied it up," said Naslund, who leads the Canucks with 13 goals. "But on the other hand, I really thought we would beat them in the end." Cloutier was the difference as he enjoyed his best performance in almost a month after giving up 23 goals in his last five starts, all losses. "I felt good tonight. I've felt good all week," said Cloutier, who's game has been the focus of concern from coach Steve Ludzik. "I'm not worried about that. People are saying maybe I'm not playing well. I think every night I go out there and it's a new game for me. I don't let anybody's comments bother me," Cloutier said. "If people don't think I'm playing well, it's up to them." The Lightning ran into injury troubles, losing two players. Forward Stan Drulia did not return after sustaining a concussion when he was checked heavily into the boards two minutes into the game. Veteran defenseman Petr Svoboda was forced to leave in the second with a left-shoulder injury. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Tampa Bay Clubhouse Vancouver Clubhouse RECAPS NY Rangers 3 Toronto 2
Tampa Bay 3
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