On Monday, we told you about former Lightning head coach Barry Melrose who openly admitted that he is taking great delight in the struggles of the organization that fired him, not to mention the fact he's openly rooting for them to lose every game they play. Well, Melrose has to be loving this current nine-game losing streak Tampa Bay is on, as it dropped another one on Wednesday night in Buffalo, 4-2. The Lightning actually jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period, thanks to goals by Mark Recchi and Martin St. Louis.
With less than a minute to play in the opening period, Buffalo's Drew Stafford picked up a power play goal, which set the stage for Thomas Vanek to tie the game and, ultimately, give the Sabres the lead in the second period with a pair of goals, giving him a league-best 22 on the season. Vanek has four goals in his past three games, all Buffalo victories.
Jason Pominville picked up an empty net goal late in the third, while Ryan Miller stopped 26 shots in the win.
Red Wings Rally for Win
Trailing 3-1 with less than 10 minutes to play in regulation, the Red Wings picked up a pair of goals from Brian Rafalski and Henrik Zetterberg, forcing their game against Calgary to overtime. Nicklas Lidstrom picked up the game-winning goal 3:50 into the extra period, giving Detroit a 4-3 win at Joe Louis Arena.
The Flames had a 2-0 lead in the first period, when Craig Conroy and Daymond Langkow scored late in the period. David Moss also scored for the Flames, while Valtteri Filppula picked up his fourth goal of the season for Detroit.
... Nicklas Backstrom, Alexandre Giroux and Alex Ovechkin picked up goals for the Capitals, as they ended the Bruins five-game winning streak with a 3-1 win. Brent Johnson turned aside 33 shot in the win for Washington, while Milan Lucic picked up the goal for Boston.
... Scott Gomez scored the game-winning goal just 18 seconds into overtime, to give the Rangers a 3-2 win in Atlanta. Colton Orr picked up his first goal of the season just two minutes into the game, while Ryan Callahan added the other tally for the Rangers. Joey Crabb scored his first career goal for Atlanta in the first period, while Ilya Kovalchuk picked up his 10th goal of the season in the third period.
... The Penguins lost their third game in a row Wednesday night, when they dropped a 4-1 decision to New Jersey. The Penguins fired three shots off the post throughout the course of the game, including one from Sidney Crosby when he had a wide open net to shoot at. Travis Zajac scored the game's first goal off a bounce off the end boards, while Patrick Elias, Zach Parise and Dainius Zubrus also scored for New Jersey. Matt Cooke ended Scott Clemmensen's shutout bid late in the third period, with his third goal of the season.
... The Blackhawks shutout Ottawa thanks to 23 saves from Cristobal Huet and Patrick Kane's 13th goal of the season. Troy Brouwer added an empty net goal late in the third for Chicago.
... Phoenix picked up a pair of goals from Olli Jokinen and Martin Hanzal, as the Coyotes pulled out a 5-3 win over Dallas. Marty Turco gave up four goals on 33 shots, as Steven Reinprecht also scored for Phoenix. Trevor Daley, James Neal, and Fabian Brunnstrom scored for the Stars.
