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Denis Right At Home During Rare Road Victory

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2007

MONTREAL - It took a happy homecoming for the Lightning to overcome their road woes Tuesday night.

Montreal native Marc Denis, making only his fourth start of the season, stopped 28 shots in regulation and overtime, and all three in a shootout to lift Tampa Bay to a 3-2 victory over the Canadiens. The win snapped the Lightning's five-game road winless streak.

Vinny Lecavalier and Andre Roy scored for the Lightning, who gave up the tying goal late in the third period, and Brad Richards scored the only shootout goal to give Tampa Bay its third road victory of the season.

While it has been a tough go on the road for Tampa Bay, it has been an even tougher road for Denis, who was brought in from Columbus before last season to be the No. 1 goaltender but has been relegated to seldom-used backup.

But on Tuesday, he showed some of the glimpses of what made him a workhorse with the Blue Jackets. Putting in that type of performance in his hometown made things that much more rewarding.

"To look in the past is not good for me. It has been well documented and what has happened has happened," said Denis, who pumped his fist in celebration after stopping Saku Koivu's attempt and clinching the win. "Hopefully this is a new door that opens for me as far as the future is concerned. But it was good to have an opportunity to play in my hometown and to be able to contribute and get a road win. That's what I'm really happy about."

The play of Richards, who was questionable after running his knee into the boards Monday night in Toronto, didn't go unnoticed, either, particularly during a penalty kill in the final two minutes of overtime when he didn't come off the ice. That helped get the game to the shootout.

"High marks to him, to play 30 minutes, and he just wouldn't come off the ice during the penalty kill. He wanted to get that done and that was a very important part," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "He played well, and so did the whole team. It was just a good bounce-back effort after the night before and what happened in a 6-1 loss in Toronto."

The second period, in which Tampa Bay fell into a hole on Monday night, started out looking like it might be the same. Brad Lukowich was called for hooking 30 seconds into the period, giving the league's top-ranked power play its first crack with the man advantage. And 17 seconds after the call, Alexei Kovalev fired a one-timer that broke the blade of his stick, and while Denis managed to stop the blade of Kovalev's stick, the puck found its way behind him for a 1-0 Canadiens lead.
Lecavalier answered with his 20th goal of the season, 63 seconds after Kovalev's goal. Lecavalier's goal came on a one-timer from the right point at 1:50 of the second period - 20 seconds after Koivu was whistled for tripping Marty St. Louis.

Roy took advantage of a mistake by Montreal defenseman Ryan O'Byrne, who fumbled the puck at the side of his net. As Roy skated toward the front of the net, he was able to collect the gift and smack a quick shot past Carey Price at the 8:58 mark.

After playing a strong defensive game in the third period, Montreal tied the game with 4:38 left after a poor decision by Shane O'Brien, who tried to clear the puck on his backhand from just above his crease. The puck went straight to Tomas Plekanec, who whacked a shot over the shoulder of Denis into the top far corner.

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.

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