Erik Erlendsson in the Trib reports no decision has been made yet to reassign either Timo Helbling or Paul Ranger back to Springfield. A decision must be made soon however with valuable cap room being eaten daily and the Springfield Falcons in desperate need of healthy bodies on defense.

If two teams play a hockey game and nobody is there to see it, does it make a sound? Geez, they might as well play in a mausoleum.

TB-2
WSH-3 (Final-SO)

The Lightning are not living up to billing in shootouts.

The game sheet can be found at NHL.com. Jay Feaster vows to trim the roster to 20 after the game. Paul Ranger got his second taste of NHL action and the implicit message is that one of either Ranger or Helbling will be demoted after the game. For my money, Paul Ranger sealed his roster spot with a superb shift at the end of OT that could've easily resulted in the OT winner had Vincent Lecavalier finished.

Here are the current statistics for the top Lightning prospects, overage prospects and overage professionals currently playing in Europe:

Stanislav Lascek had a Lightning prospect season high five points in one game tonight as Chicoutimi crushed Head Coach Patrick Roy and the Quebec Remparts 9-1. Lascek's five points on one goal and four assists were not the highlight of the game, however, as Lightning Traverse City tryout player Maxime Boisclair had seven points in the game on four goals and three assists. Another teammate, David Desharnais, had one goal and five assists. The nine goals by Chicoutimi were not even the most by a team in the QMJHL on the night -- Moncton ran up 13 goals on PEI, all on backup goaltender Antoine Lafleur.

JHN-4
WHL-3 (Final SO)

David Currie stopped 28 of 31 in regulation and overtime before winning the shootout. Johnstown improves to 2-0-0-0 on the exhibition season. The club will play their opener Friday at the Columbia Inferno.

According to the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, all three goals in regulation were scored by Lightning prospects. One each were tallied by Zbynek Hrdel, Jay Rosehill and Dennis Packard who also scored the winning goal in the shootout.