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  Thursday, Jan. 13 7:30pm ET
Lightning snap 12-game winless streak
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- The Tampa Bay Lightning are winners again.

Robert Petrovicky and Vincent Lecavalier scored first-period goals as the Lightning snapped a 12-game winless streak Thursday night with a 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders.

"It was a long time," Petrovicky said. "It was a huge win. We needed it."

Tampa Bay's Mike Sillinger had a goal and two assists, including a power-play goal in the third-period that put the Lightning up 3-1. Darcy Tucker added an empty-goal goal as the Lightning won for the first time since Dec. 10. Tampa Bay was in an 0-10-2 slump.

"We needed an ugly win," Tampa Bay coach Steve Ludzik said of the game, which featured 24 penalties. "It was sure nice to get that off our back. Now we need to gobble up points."

Mariusz Czerkawski and Jorgen Jonsson had third-period goals for the Islanders (1-7-1), who have won just once in their past nine games and have the NHL's worst-record at 10-26-6.

"After the first period went by, we settled down and started to play our game," Islanders coach Butch Goring said. "You're always disappointed when you don't win the game, but we had our chances and didn't make the most of them."

Petrovicky's first-period goal at 8:44 came just seconds after New York's Brad Isbister hit the post. The Tampa Bay center faked a slap shot and deked around Islanders goalie Roberto Luongo.

Lecavalier scored his team-leading 14th goal on a rebound at 13:29 on a 5-on-3 power-play. New York has allowed 16 power-play goals in the past eight games.

Luongo stopped Dan Kesa on a second-period penalty shot. Kesa was pulled down by Niklas Andersson during a short-handed breakaway. Tampa Bay is 0-for-3 this season on penalty shots.

It was the third consecutive game New York has been involved in a penalty shot. Claude Lapointe failed to score in Wednesday's game at Florida, while Isbister scored Monday against Phoenix.

The last penalty shot against the Islanders was also at Tampa Bay on Jan. 11, 1997, when Rob Zamuner scored against Tommy Salo. It was the first time the Islanders stopped a penalty shot since Dec. 31, 1992, when Glenn Healy stopped Brett Hull at St. Louis.

Czerkawski scored at 5:23 of the third to make it 2-1, but Sillinger's power-play goal at 10:47 gave Tampa Bay a two-goal lead. Jonsson cut it to 3-2 with a goal at 12:35.

Tucker's empty-net goal with 58 seconds left sealed the victory.

Tampa Bay's Reid Simpson will miss at least six weeks after breaking his jaw during a first-period fight with Eric Cairns. New York wing Bill Muckalt dislocated his left shoulder in the second period and did not return.
 


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