Connolly, Brett

No. 14 Cornell Big Red 2 @ RPI Red Hawks 2 (OT)

D Kirill Gotovets, COR: 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM, 2 SOG
Season totals: 13 GP, 1-2-3, Even, 8 PIM

Gotovets was back in the lineup after being scratched last weekend.

Harvard Crimson 6 @ Quinnipiac Bobcats 3

F Alex Killorn, HAR: 0-3-3, +2, 0 PIM, 3 SOG
Season totals: 22 GP, 14-15-29, +5, 33 PIMs
F Matthew Peca, QU: 0-2-2, E, 3 SOG
Season totals: 26 GP, 6-14-20, +3, 10 PIM

Peca and Quinnipiac played their first game since January 14 but still came out of the first period with a 3-1 lead. They couldn’t hold the lead vs. Alex Killorn (pictured) and Harvard, who scored the game’s final five goals. The Lightning prospects combined for five points in the game.

Vermont Catamounts 1 @ No.9 UMass-Lowell Riverhawks 3

F Matt Marshall, UVM: Did not play (injured)
Season totals: 2 GP, 0-0-0, E, 2 PIM

Marshall continues to miss time recovering from surgery. Reports state he’s expected back before the end of Vermont’s season. Vermont fell to 5-20-1 on the year.

Miami RedHawks 1 @ No.7 Michigan Wolverines 4

F Jimmy Mullin, MIA: 0-0-0, -1, 0 PIM, 0 SOG
Season totals: 28 GP, 8-7-15, +8, 8 PIM

Mullin started the game for the RedHawks, but left the ice after the second period with ice around his right knee. Hopefully it’s not serious, though he was having trouble putting weight on his right leg. Miami fell out of the most recent USCHO poll. They were No.20 last week.

Alaska Nanooks 1 @ No. 16 Western Michigan Broncos 2

D Luke Witkowski, UWM: 0-0-0, -1, 0 PIM, 2 SOG
Season totals: 28 GP, 1-5-6, +3, 39 PIM

The Broncos scored twice in the first period and made the lead stand up at home against the Nanooks. WMU fell from No.8 to No.16 in the latest USCHO poll.

Should I feel outraged about the bad refereeing?

WSH-3
TB 4 (OT)

Mathieu Garon allowed 3 goals on 29 shots for the win.

First Period
WSH Hendricks (2), (Laich), 16:55
TB Purcell (13), (Downie, Stamkos), 18:50

Second Period
TB St. Louis (13), (Pyatt, Clark), 1:05
TB Thompson (6), (Moore, Wyman), 10:59
WSH Perrault (8), (unassisted), 13:07

Third Period
WSH Brouwer (15), (unassisted), 5:53

Overtime
TB Stamkos (33), (St. Louis, Garon), 2:45

Steven Stamkos and Pavel Kubina were the game's first and third stars.

Make no mistake about it, Washington's third goal was a completely blown call. The holding on Matt Gilroy that led to Brouwer's unassisted goal was a joke. I'd be more outraged were it not for the craft Russian leg sweep Vincent Lecavalier put on Roman Hamrlik to spring Marty for the Lightning's second goal. Still, for the refs to blow that call it plain view was pretty shocking.

Brett Connolly was -1 with 1 hit in 5:08.

J.T. Wyman had an assist and 3 shots and 1 hit in 13:00. Played very well coming off the shelf.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Man, Columbus is dreadful.

CBJ-2
TB-4

Mathieu Garon allowed 2 goals on 24 shots for the win.

First Period
TB Angelidis (1), (unassisted), 13:20
CBJ Lebda (1), (Brassard, Umberger), 15:07

Second Period
TB Lecavalier (19), (Gervais, St. Louis)(PP), 8:19
TB St. Louis (12), (Lecavalier), 16:56

Third Period
CBJ Johansen (9), (Umberger), 5:40
TB Thompson (5), (Moore, Smith), 11:29

Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, and Bruno Gervais were the game's three stars.

Columbus is horrible. If the Lightning had a more functional power play or if Curtis Sanford had been a little worse, the Lightning would've easily doubled their margin of victory. It's a nice win to have going into the All-Star Break, but they're terrible. They looked like a Junior A team, at times.

The Lightning probably will get a slew of guys back from injury after the break. That's good, because Norfolk's just about down to the popcorn vendors as far as their roster goes.

Brett Connolly had 1 hit in 6:43.

Trevor Smith had an assist and was +2 with 2 shots and 1 hit in 13:39. Here's a guy making a move to try and stick. At a bare minimum, he's getting quality minutes on tape for other NHL teams to evaluate.

Evan Oberg had 1 hit in 1:21 in his debut after being called up from the Delta Airlines Frequent Flyer Club.

Mike Angelidis had a goal and was +1 with 1 shot in 4:01. It was a soft as hell goal, but no one deserved that moment more than a hard working guy like Angelidis.

Finally, Pierre-Cedric Labrie was -1 with 3 hits in 5:01.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

I'd like to thank Mike Smith for still being Mike Smith.

TB-4
PHO-3

Dwayne Roloson allowed 3 goals on 36 shots for the rare win.

First Period
TB Stamkos (32), (St. Louis, Moore), 12:02
TB Purcell (12), (Downie, Kubina), 15:39

Second Period
TB St. Louis (11), (Smith, Labrie), 6:15
PHO Korpikoski (11), (Gordon)(SH), 8:29
TB Downie (8), (Lecavalier), 16:39

Third Period
PHO Yandle (6), (Korpikoski, Whitney), 3:25
PHO Whitney (15), (Ekman-Larsson, Doan)(PP), 16:01

Steve Downie and Martin St. Louis were the game's second and third star.

The Lightning didn't have nearly the jump they had last night against Dallas, but they didn't require quite the same effort against Mike Smith, who allowed 4 goals on just 21 shots, including the gift to Steve Downie that ended up being the winner.

Brett Connolly was -1 with 1 shot and 1 hit in 7:18.

Trevor Smith had a beautiful assist and was +1 with 1 shot and 1 blocked shot in 8:25. His saucer pass to Martin St. Louis to spring him on his breakaway goal was a breathtaking little display of skill. Nice.

Pierre-Cedric Labrie had his first NHL point on an assist and he was +1 with 3 shots in 6:30. You get the feeling he's quickly becoming sort of the unofficial team mascot. It's hard not to root for the guy.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Streaking Lightning extinguish Stars. (Cliche headlines are fun.)

TB-2
DAL-1

Mathieu Garon allowed 1 goal on 28 shots for the victory. He shook off a little collision in the middle of the game to handle his business.

First Period
TB Purcell (10), (St. Louis, Gervais), 18:48

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
DAL Wandell (3), (Eriksson), 1:22
TB Purcell (11), (St. Louis, Lecavalier), 3:36

Teddy Purcell and Martin St. Louis were the game's first and second stars.

Karri Lehtonen saved the Stars from getting blown out early. The Lightning played one of their best periods of the season in the first, and their puck movement on the power play, in particular, was dazzling. They deserved to have a bigger lead going into the third and it was a relief that they held onto their 1 goal margin.

Brett Connolly had 4 penalty minutes in 6:28 and they were kind of lazy penalties. Bad rookie. Bad.

Trevor Smith had 2 hits in 4:41. Norfolk would like to clone him and send one of the two back to them right now.

Pierre-Cedric Labrie had 4 hits and a fight in 6:01. For those of you who were making a point to exalt Blair Jones' physical play even though he was averaging 1 hit a night: this is the kind of a stat line a 4th line lumberjack needs to put up. Keep chopping wood, Pierre-Cedric. He showed some nice technique on the short punches in close quarters at the start of the brawl with Nystrom.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.