Lightning Opens Arena With Plenty of Fireworks

On a night that they opened their $160-million Ice Palace, the Tampa Bay Lightning gave their fans something to remember. The New York Rangers probably won’t forget it, either.

Dino Ciccarelli and Alex Selivanov scored 32 seconds apart early in the second period as the Lightning beat the Rangers, 5-2, Sunday night in the inaugural game at the new arena in Tampa, Fla.

“I think we showed everybody what a great building we have,” Tampa Bay center Brian Bradley said. “The players went out there and did their job. I don’t think the fans were disappointed.”

An overflow crowd of 20,543 in the 19,764-seat building saw Ciccarelli break a 1-1 tie 23 seconds into the period. The Lightning right wing converted the rebound of a shot from Rudy Poeschek for his fourth goal.

San Jose 3, St. Louis 2--Tony Granato broke a second-period tie with a power-play goal as the Sharks won at St. Louis.

Granato broke a 1-1 tie with his power-play goal at 10:20 of the second when he took a pass from Bernie Nicholls, who was playing in his 1,000th game.

Calgary 6, Edmonton 3--Theoren Fleury scored his first goal of the season and added two assists as the Flames beat the Oilers to end a two-game losing streak at Calgary.

Florida 1, Phoenix 1--Mike Gartner’s power-play goal with 13.4 seconds left in regulation lifted the Coyotes to a tie with the unbeaten Panthers at Phoenix.

Florida defenseman Rhett Warrener was penalized for holding with 42 seconds left and the Coyotes pulled goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin for an extra attacker. Gartner scored his league-leading seventh goal of the season.