Canucks, Pederson’s Goal Jolt Lightning

Denis Pederson scored a short-handed goal with 24.9 seconds left as the Vancouver Canucks scored three late goals to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-4, Sunday at Tampa, Fla.

Daniel Sedin scored his first NHL goal with 1:13 left in the third period to tie the game for Vancouver after Mattias Ohlund had gotten the Canucks within 4-3 with 2:55 remaining.

Paul Mara gave the Lightning a 3-2 lead at 6:06 of the second period. Rookie Brad Richards, the Memorial Cup MVP last season, scored his first NHL goal on a wrist shot that made it 4-2 at 14:27 of the second period.

After Richards’ goal, Vancouver Coach Marc Crawford pulled goaltender Felix Potvin, who allowed four goals on 12 shots, and replaced him with Bob Essensa.

Tampa Bay, which finished with only 16 shots, had only one in the next 22 minutes after Potvin’s departure.

Vancouver had 41 shots on Lightning goaltender Dan Cloutier.

Lightning Coach Steve Ludzik hoped his team learned something.

“If we would have won, we would have stolen it,” he said. “Sometimes it’s good the guys realize that you can’t steal games like that and just rely on Cloutier to be diving all over making great saves. Obviously, it hurts, but it’s a good lesson.”

Pittsburgh 3, Nashville 1--The Penguins rallied with three third-period goals to beat the Predators and earn a split in the two-game season-opening series in Japan.

Robert Lang, Martin Straka and Jan Hrdina scored to turn around a 1-0 deficit.

Nashville won the first game, 3-1. The second game, played Sunday night at Omiya, ended late Saturday night, Los Angeles time.

More than 13,000 spectators watched in mostly calm concentration. Hockey has grown in popularity in Japan since the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano.