Hate the outcome. Loved the style of play from these two teams matching up.

TB-2
COL-4

Marc Denis stopped 28 of 32 shots in the loss. Vincent Lecavalier had 1 power play goal and 1 assist. Vaclav Prospal scored the other Lightning goal. Individual helpers belonged to Cory Sarich, Dan Boyle and Martin St. Louis. The Lightning fail to capitalize on the opportunity to leapfrog several teams in the conference standings.

First Period
Colorado 16:43, Joe Sakic 18 (power play) (Paul Stastny, John-Michael Liles)

Second Period
Tampa Bay 1:45, Vaclav Prospal 5 (Vincent Lecavalier, Cory Sarich)
Colorado 3:17, Milan Hejduk 13 (Paul Stastny)
Tampa Bay 4:30, Vincent Lecavalier 23 (power play) (Dan Boyle, Martin St. Louis)
Colorado 12:43, Tyler Arnason 11 (Karlis Skrastins, Brett Clark)

Third Period
Colorado 18:10, Paul Stastny 10 (Andrew Brunette, Karlis Skrastins)

Game sheet from NHL.com.

Mike Lundin had an assist in #5 Maine's 4-2 win over UMASS-Lowell. It was Lundin's 8th helper of the season and 11th point. The Black Bears improve to 13-3-2 and 6-3-1 in the HEast.

John Wessbecker was scoreless and -1 in UMASS' 2-1 loss to Merrimack. The Minutemen's winless streak now reaches 4, falling to 8-7-3 overall and 5-5-1 in the HEast.

Dusty Collins was scoreless and even in Northern Michigan's 4-1 win over Ferris State. The Wildcats now sit 8-12-2 overall and 5-9-1 in the CCHA.

Morgan Cey had to face 70 shots tonight between regulation, overtime and the shootout. 70.

JHN-3
GWT-4 (SO)

Morgan Cey stopped 59 of 62 shots faced in overtime and regulation before allowing 2 of 8 penalty shot chances to take the shootout loss. Have mercy. Andre Deveaux led the Falcons with 2 goals and 1 assist while Radek Smolenak had 1 goal and 2 assists. Adam Henrich, Geoff Waugh and PJ Atherton had individual assists. Gwinnett tallied the tying goal on the power play with under 2 minutes to go in regulation to force overtime. Naturally, Gwinnett, being the organization and county in Georgia with the utmost of humility and class (that's sarcasm) did not give a single star in the game to a Johnstown player even though Deveaux and Smolenak had the game high in points and Cey stopped 59 shots. Considering the media pool for Gwinnett includes a certain massive Thrashers homer/online editor for HF, I'm not surprised.

Some good news from the night: Gerald Coleman is on the bus for this swing through the south and was in uniform as Cey's backup.

First Period
JHN Deveaux, (4) (Smolenak, Henrich), 15:24

Second Period
GWT Awe, (16) (Schell, Mifsud), 5:57 (PP)
JHN Smolenak, (12) (Deveaux, Waugh), 15:13

Third Period
GWT Painchaud, (9) (York, Contois), 3:43
JHN Deveaux, (5) (Smolenak, Atherton), 8:12
GWT Schell, (15) (Mifsud, Awe), 18:12 (PP)

Game sheet from ECHL.com.

The last five minutes of that game nearly gave me a coronary.

TB-3
MIN-2

Marc Denis stopped 29 of 31 shots and got some help from his friend Mr. Post to secure his 9th win of the season. Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier each had 1 goal and 1 assist while Paul Ranger escaped Chateau au Bow Wow to register 2 helpers in the game. Defenseman Dan Boyle scored the other Lightning goal. The Lightning pull into the halfway point of the season 1 game under .500 with 40 points and tonights victory will not stop trade winds from gusting.

On a site administrative note: with their 41st games played of the season Eric Perrin and Doug Janik have graduated from overage prospect status and will be moved into the Bolt Prospects Alumni section of the prospect page. Congratulations to both men on their success and proving they have what it takes to make it at hockey's highest level.

First Period
Tampa Bay 8:42, Martin St. Louis 26 (shorthanded) (Vincent Lecavalier)
Tampa Bay 13:52, Dan Boyle 9 (Paul Ranger)

Second Period
Minnesota 0:44, Mark Parrish 14 (Pavol Demitra, Mikko Koivu)
Tampa Bay 14:54, Vincent Lecavalier 22 (power play) (Martin St. Louis, Paul Ranger)

Third Period
Minnesota 13:45, Pavol Demitra 11 (Mikko Koivu, Mark Parrish)

Game sheet from NHL.com.