Game Results

Lightning choke.

TB-3
CAR-4

Johan Holmqvist stopped only 18 of 22 shots faced in the loss as the Lightning choked away a 3-1 lead at the second intermission to squander an opportunity to get within 3 points in the race for the division.

Andreas Holmqvist had a goal as Frolunda thrashed Lulea 7-1. Lightning prospect Johan Harju was scoreless in the match for Lulea.

Highlights from Tuesday and Wednesday:

• 4 point night for Courtnall
• Fadden extends his point streak to 6 games
• Helenius nearly breaks his losing streak

Albert Vishnyakov did not play in Spartak's 3-1 loss to Ufa.

Denis Kazionov was scoreless in Omsk's 6-1 loss to Togliatti.

Dimitri Kazionov and Alexei Glukhov were scoreless in Cherepovets' 3-2 shootout win over Kazan. Vasily Koshechkin was dressed as Ak Bars' backup for the game.

Anton But was scoreless in St. Petersburg's 3-2 loss to Dynamo.

For the second straight game some dubious officiating leaves the stench of league bias in Lightning land.

NYR-2
TB-1

Johan Holmqvist stopped 27 of 29 shots for the loss.

First, I give credit to Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers defensive discipline. This was a tight game that could've gone either way.

However, someone needs to explain to me the disallowed third period goal. The goal was waived off by the referee on the ice and there was no definitive shot of the puck crossing the line. Of course, the reason why there was no definitive shot of the puck crossing the line was because Brendan Shanahan's glove was closed on top of it.

Now, last I checked, that's a penalty shot. It was one or the other. It was either a goal, or it was penalty shot. Instead, mighty and wise Toronto says no goal and they line it up at center ice. No acknowledgement of the fact Shanahan just broke a major rule to keep the puck out. No penalty shot. So when the Lightning scored with about 16 seconds left in the game, how furious do you think I was? How furious do you think Torts is going to be when he sees the tape? The league's a joke, a total, absolute joke. This was almost as bad as Chara-gate in Boston last year. Gorilla Monsoon's WWF was more on the up and up than Bettman's NHL is.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.