Lightning Spoils Lemieux’s Return

Vaclav Prospal scored with 30.2 seconds to play in overtime to spoil Mario Lemieux’s return to the ice and lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night at Tampa, Fla.

Lemieux, originally expected to be sidelined three to four weeks, had arthroscopic surgery on Oct. 29 for a hip injury that caused him to miss a total of eight games this season.

He had an assist in his first game back.

“I felt pretty good skating wise,” Lemieux said. “It was surprising after a couple of weeks of not playing. I felt all right.”

Prospal’s power-play goal on a shot from the right circle helped the Lightning stop a six-game losing streak.

New Jersey 1, Toronto 1--John Madden scored the tying goal for the Devils in the third period as the two bitter rivals battled through a fight-filled game at Toronto.

The game featured eight fighting majors. Mats Sundin scored for the Maple Leafs, who lost, 3-2, Friday at New Jersey.

The Devils eliminated Toronto in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season, a series marred by Tie Domi’s elbow to the head of Devil defenseman Scott Niedermayer. Domi and New Jersey’s Jim McKenzie fought Friday night, but Domi stayed away from the fray in the rematch.

St. Louis 4, Phoenix 1--Keith Tkachuk had two goals against his former team to lead the Blues to a victory at St. Louis.

In his first game against the Coyotes after last year’s trade, Tkachuk scored a power-play goal at 2:21 of the first period to give St. Louis the lead for good.

Montreal 3, New York Islanders 2--Craig Rivet, Oleg Petrov and Yanic Perreault scored second-period goals to lead the Canadiens past the suddenly struggling Islanders at Montreal.

Alexei Yashin scored twice in the second period for New York, which lost consecutive games for the first time this season. The Islanders have lost three of five after a 9-0-1-1 start.

Philadelphia 3, Florida 2--John LeClair scored with 42.1 seconds left in overtime to lift the Flyers to a victory over the Panthers at Sunrise, Fla.

LeClair capitalized on a turnover by Marcus Nilson in front of the Florida net. Nilson gave the puck away to an unmarked LeClair, who scooted a wrist shot past Roberto Luongo for his eighth goal.

Washington 3, Atlanta 0--Jeff Halpern and Chris Simon scored first-period goals six seconds apart and goalie Olaf Kolzig made 34 saves as the Capitals snapped a six-game winless streak with a victory at Washington.

It was the third time in team history the Capitals have scored goals six seconds apart--the last time coming when Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller did it against the Minnesota North Stars on Nov. 14, 1987.

Calgary 2, Colorado 0--NHL scoring leader Jarome Iginla got his 14th goal of the season in the third period and Roman Turek stopped all 36 Avalanche shots in the Flames’ victory at Calgary.

New York Rangers 4, Buffalo 2--Michael York scored two goals and Dan Blackburn made 29 saves as the Rangers extended their winning streak to four games with a victory at Buffalo.

Ottawa 3, Nashville 2--Defenseman Wade Redden scored with four minutes remaining to lift the Senators past the Predators at Ottawa for their sixth consecutive victory.

Columbus 5, Boston 1--Blake Sloan, Mathieu Darche and Ray Whitney each scored their first goals as the Blue Jackets broke out of a season-long scoring slump with an easy victory at Boston.