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Lightning strikes at top

Nashville Predators goaltender Tomas Vokoun stops a Chicago Blackhawks shot with his chest during first period NHL action in Nashville, Tennessee, Monday. PHOTO: REUTERS

The Tampa Bay Lightning raised their points total to 84 with a victory over Colorado, and joined Ottawa and Philadelphia atop the Eastern Conference standings.

And they insist they belong in that elite group.

"We have the team to be where we are," center Vincent Lecavalier said. "In the standings we're first, but we have to stay even keel. There is still a lot of work to do, with 17 or 18 games left to the playoffs. So our work isn't done."

Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis scored third-period goals, Nikolai Khabibulin got his 35th career shutout and the Lightning beat the Avalanche 3-0 on Monday night for their fifth straight win.

Khabibulin barely broke a sweat, needing to make only 16 saves.

"I wasn't tested," Khabibulin said. "We played great defense and that's part of it. This was one of the best defensive games I've been a part of.

"We moved the puck and didn't allow them many chances. The guys blocked a lot of shots, and we kept control of the puck."

Brad Richards also scored for the Lightning, who set a franchise record for road wins in a season at 18.

The Lightning are 9-0-1-2 in their last 12 games.

Colorado's home-ice woes continued. The Avalanche are winless in their last seven home games (0-4-2-1) and have scored only six goals in those games. They also are 1-5-1-1 in their last eight games overall.

"There is no question that we are in a slump," Avs coach Tony Granato said. "Going through the season, you obviously think you are going to have little stumbles, but I didn't think we would get caught in a rut like this.

"We haven't been able to generate a whole lot of offense. With the people we have on this team, that should be our strength."

Granato knows that the Avalanche were tops in the NHL just 10 days ago.

"So we are not that far away from that," he said. "As fast as it turned around this way, we can turn it around and be right back on top. We have to get back to work and do the little things that we did well the first 50-plus games of the season."

Avalanche wing Paul Kariya thinks the team needs concentrate on the basics.

"[We're] trying to be too cute when we should be getting the puck to the net," he said. ``You can't win games making 14, 15 shots.''

Tampa Bay outshot Colorado 10-4 in the third period, scoring twice. Lecavalier made it 2-0 at 14:20 with his 25th goal of the season.

St. Louis added an empty-netter with 1:05 to go, his 32nd. St. Louis extended his points streak to 12 games, during which he has eight goals and 13 assists.

Tampa Bay had a 15-5 edge in shots in the first period and led 1-0 on Richards' 21st goal. Fredrik Modin's shot ricocheted just right of the goal, and Richards punched it in.

Colorado's David Aebischer had 26 saves. He kept the score from being more lopsided, stopping Martin Cibak on a partial breakaway and later making a sprawling save to rob Lecavalier. Colorado's Milan Hejduk hit the goalpost during the Avs' lone power play of the game.

Colorado center Peter Forsberg missed his seventh straight game because of a groin injury.

Canadiens 2, Devils 1

At Montreal, Jason Ward scored a power-play goal with 24 seconds left in regulation, and the Canadiens extended their season-high winning streak to five.

Richard Zednik scored his first goal in over a month, and Jose Theodore stopped 28 shots for the Canadiens, 6-1 in their last seven games.

Blackhawks 2, Predators 2

At Nashville, Chicago's Adam Munro made 33 saves and earned a tie in his first NHL game.

Chicago tied it with a minute and 44 seconds remaining in regulation play when Matt Keith scored his first goal of the season, by pushing the puck under Tomas Vokoun from a crowd in front of the net.
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