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Thursday, Dec. 23 7:30pm ET
Penguins win again for Brooks | |||||
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PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Pittsburgh Penguins finally got a power-play goal. And it came from an unlikely source. Darius Kasparaitis scored his second goal in as many games and ended Pittsburgh's 0-for-26 power-play slump as the Penguins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 Thursday night. Things had gotten so desperate that assistant coach Rick Kehoe hauled out old videotapes showing Mario Lemieux running Pittsburgh's potent power play of a decade earlier. Perhaps it helped as the Penguins were able to break through with a power-play goal. "We had enough opportunities," coach Herb Brooks said. "They don't go in for whatever reason -- either the goalie makes a save or we don't shoot the puck or we overpass it. You start to get a funny feeling." Kasparaitis has replaced rookie Michal Rozsival on the power-play unit, and he has responded. "It's good the coach has confidence in me and I'm happy with that," Kasparaitis said. Tampa Bay coach Steve Ludzik was upset Pittsburgh even had the chance, saying that the holding call against Stephane Richer was marginal, especially late in a tie game. "I guess that's what you get when you've been in last place for three years in a row," Ludzik said. "You're not going to get the benefit of the call." The Penguins took a 3-1 lead into the third period, but saw Tampa Bay tie it before losing its fourth consecutive game. On Pittsburgh's fifth power-play opportunity of the game, Jagr launched a shot from the right circle that went through traffic. It hit Kasparaitis' stick and beat goalie Dan Cloutier on the short side at 15:08 of the third period. The Lightning tied it with the help of a couple of defensive breakdowns. Darcy Tucker successfully fought off defenseman Andrew Ference to score his second of the game on a rebound at 6:08. With the teams 4-on-4 at 9:39, Jagr ignored Paul Mara, giving him a clear path to net, where he was able to send in Vincent Lecavalier's pass for the tying goal. Pittsburgh's Tyler Wright, recalled from the minors on Dec. 18 to cover an injury emergency, hadn't scored an NHL goal since Jan. 14, 1998 at Boston. He ended that 100-game drought and gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead when he deflected Brad Werenka's point shot past Cloutier at 5:02 of the first period. "It's always nice to get the monkey off the back because you always have guys reminding you that you haven't scored," Wright said. Werenka broke a 1-1 tie at 15:51 of the second when he moved up the slot and banged in Aleksey Morozov's pass from behind the net. At 16:11, Cloutier stopped Kasparaitis' shot but Alexei Kovalev was able to beat Cloutier to the rebound and score his 13th. Tucker scored his first at 7:16 of the second period, five seconds after the Lightning failed to score on five minutes of power-play time, including a two-man advantage for 1:30. Goalie Peter Skudra dived out to stop the puck and missed it, leaving the open net for Tucker. The Penguins are 6-2 since Brooks replaced Kevin Constantine as coach on Dec. 9.
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