European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 1, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 38 stars and stripes sunday april 1 2007 Lecavalier notches 50th hurricanes Hopes fading Roundup the associated press Vincent Lecavalier is doing All he can to help coach John Tor Torellas playoff guarantee come True Lecavalier scored his no leading 50th goal and added two assists to Lead Tampa Bay to a 42 Victory Over the slump ing Carolina hurricanes on Friday night after the lightning recently lost five out of seven games Tortorella said the team would reach the postseason for the fourth straight season apparently the players bought in to the bold prediction everyone in this room feels like were going to make the play offs and we dont All come out and say it because if s not the Way if s usually done but we All feel that Way in the dressing room defens Eman Nolan Pratt said i dont think it puts any More pres sure on us theres already a ton of pressure to win anyway the pressure certainly is build ing on the hurricanes who have lost three straight and Are in Dan Ger of becoming the first defend ing Stanley cup Champion to miss the playoffs since new Jersey in 1996 a loss at this Point in the sea son is frustrating period coach Peter Laviolette said at Raleigh no Martin St Louis scored his 42nd goal Vaclav Prospal had a goal and an As Sist and Filip Kuba broke a third period tie for the lightning who twice rallied from on goal deficits and moved past the Idle new York rangers into sixth place in the Eastern conference Erik Cole and Mike commo Dore scored for Carolina tied for 10th in the East two Points below the playoff cutoff with four games remaining Kub Swinner came seconds after a Tampa Bay Power play expired Craig Adams played the puck near the Carolina goal and tried a Long pass to Commodore coming out of the penalty Box but Kuba intercepted it behind the left Cir Cle and snapped the puck past Cam Ward with left making it 32 i was on the other Side of the Blue line Adams saw me and we were trying to make a play Commodore said he just didst get it out senators 5 canadians 2 Dany Heatley got his 47th goal Mike Fisher scored twice and Ottawa reached 100 Points for the fourth straight season and sixth in the past eight Montreal Sheldon sourly scored his 18th Power play goal of the season in the first tying Hall of Farner Denis Potvin and Adrian Aucoin for the nil sin Gle season record by a defense Man the visiting canadians who in Karl 8 Tampa Bays Vincent Lecavalier backhands the puck for his 50th goal of the season during the third period of fridays game against Carolina tired tied with Tampa Bay for seventh in the Eastern Confer ence with 86 Points ended a five game winning Streak sabres 6 islanders 4 at Buffalo by Chris Drury scored twice to spark the sabres five goal first period Thomas Vanek and Drew Stafford had a goal and assist each for Buffalo in a game the is Landers made close by scoring three times in the final period Jason Pominville added three assists in helping the sabres be come the first team to reach the 50win plateau this season and gain sole Possession of first place in the nil standings Viktor Kozlov scored twice including a goal in the final minute for the injury depleted islanders who dropped to 252 in their past nine devils 3 Ryers 1 Mike Rupp and Travis Zajac scored late in the second period for new Jer sey the Victory ended the devils five game losing Streak at Home and moved new Jersey into a tie with the Pittsburgh penguins atop the Atlantic division the penguins and devils each have 100 Points with four games to play the devils continued their Mas Tery of the visiting flyers improving to 61 against Philadelphia this season new Jersey has won eight straight Over Philadelphia at Home Martin Brodeur tied Vancou vers Roberto Luongo for the nil Lead with 45 wins two shy of Bernie parents league record for a single season Simon Gagne scored for the Fly ers who have dropped five of six stars 4 red wings 3 ser Gei Zubov scored the Only goal of the shootout to Lead visiting dal Las to a comeback Victory Over de troit Dallas which improved its Points Streak to six games scored three goals in to tie the game at 3 in the third period Kris Draper had a goal and an assist for Detroit Todd Bertuzzi scored his first goal with the red wings and Kirk Maltby also scored panthers 3 capitals 2 Martin Gelinas scored two goals including the Winner in overtime leading Florida past visiting Washington for its fifth straight win Jakub Klespis and Chris Clark scored goals for the capitals who have lost four of five Blackhawk 3 Blue jackets 1 at Chicago Martin Havlat ended a 13game goal drought and added an assist As the Black Hawks snapped a six game losing skid Jason chimera scored for co Lumbus which lost for the second time in two nights Sharks 4 coyotes 2 Patrick Rissmiller had a goal and an As Sist Jonathan Cheechov added a goal and san Jose kept Pace in the tight Pacific division race defens Emen Christian erhoff and Scott Hannan also scored As san Jose earned its 100th Point of the season with its eighth Victory in 10 games Fredrik Sjostrom and Steven Reinprecht scored for the visiting coyotes who lost for the 13th time in 15 games nil scoreboard Eastern conference a Buffalo Denew Jersey Satanta Ottawa Pitts Fargh Tampa Bay by rangers 1 of pts of a 50 20 7 107 292 231 46 24 8 100 206 194 40 27 11 91 234 237 46 24 8 100 274 212 45 23 10 100 267 234 42 32 4 88 241 247 39 29 9 87 223 204 40 32 6 86 233 244 Toronto by islanders Carolina Florida Boston Washington 29 11 85 240 246 36 29 12 84 231 227 38 32 8 84 229 239 34 30 14 82 233 245 35 36 6 76 211 271 26 38 14 66 229 277 21 45 11 53 200 284 Western conference a Detroit a Anaheim a Vancouver a Nashville Dallas san Jose Minnesota Calgary w lot 47 19 12 4620 12 47 23 7 4922 7 4724 6 4826 4 45 25 42 25 10 pts of a 10s 238 193 104 248 198 101 210 187 105 260 202 100 214 185 100 242 188 98 223 188 94 244 207 Colorado St Louis Columbus Edmonton los Angeles Chicago Phoenix 40 30 7 87 255 239 32 33 12 76 201 238 32 39 7 71 195 237 31 40 7 69 191 238 26 38 14 66 218 268 28 40 9 65 189 243 29 44 5 63 206 273 two Points for a win one Point for Over time loss or shootout loss division Leader clinched playoff spot fridays games Dallas 4 Detroit 3 so Ottawa 5 Montreal 2 Tampa Bay 4 Carolina 2 Florida 3 Washington 2 of new Jersey 3 Philadelphia 1 Buffalo 6 by islanders 4 Chicago 3 Columbus 1 san Jose 4 Phoenix 2 saturdays games Atlanta at Boston 1 pm Minnesota at Colorado 3 pm Buffalo at Montreal 7 pm Ottawa at by islanders 7 pm Pittsburgh at Toronto 7 pm by rangers at Philadelphia 7 pm Washington at Tampa Bay pm Anaheim at St Louis 8 pm Dallas at Nashville 8 pm Calgary at Vancouver 10 pm sundays games Detroit at Columbus pm Edmonton at Chicago 3 pm Boston at new Jersey pm Carolina at Florida 5 pm los Angeles at san Jose 6 pm Toronto at by rangers 7 pm Friday lightning 4 hurricanes 2 Tampa Bay l 1 24 Carolina 1 1 02 first Carolina Cole 28 still 2 Tampa Bay St Louis 42 Prospal second Carolina Commodore 7 Letowski 4 Tampa Bay Prospal 13 Lecavalier third Tampa Bay Kuba 14 6 Tampa Bay Lecavalier 50 shots on Bay Carolina 1171028 Power play Bay 0 of 7 Carolina oof 4 Bay Holmqvist 25142 28 shots26 Carolina Ward 29196 a18639 senators 5 canadians 2 Montreal 1 0 12 Ottawa 3 0 25 first period1 Ottawa Fisher 21 Comrie 2 Ottawa Spezza 31 heat Ley 3 Montreal sourly 25 Markov 4 Ottawa com Rie 17 Schaefer third Montreal Streit 10 Lapi Erre Ottawa Fisher 22 com 7 Ottawa Heatley 47 shots on Goa Montreal 712928 Ottawa 10171037 Power play opportunities Montreal 1 of 6 Ottawa oof 2 goalie Montreal Halak 850 36 shots32 Ottawa Emery 32155 a20185 devils 3 flyers 1 Philadelphia o 0 new Jersey o 2 13 second new Jersey Rupp 6 Lukowich 2 new Jersey Zajac 17 Parise third period3 Philadelphia Gagne 38 Knuble new Jersey pan Dolfo 11 shots on Goa Philadelphia 85215 new Jersey Power play opportunities Philadelphia 0 of 3 new Jersey 1 of 4 goalie Philadelphia Biron 17102 23 shots21 new Jersey Brodeur 45237 a17493 panthers 3 capitals 2 of Washington 110 02 Florida 110 first period Washington Klespis 3 Novotny 2 Florida Campbell 6 sprukts second period3 Washington Clark 30 Semin 4 Florida Geli Nas 12 Jokinen overtime5 Florida Gelinas 13 Weiss shots on Goa Washington 71212132 Florida 1298635 Power play 1 of 5 Florida 2 of 6 Johnson 5157 35 shots32 Florida Belfour 26179 a15712 stars 4 red wings 3 so Dallas 003 04 Detroit 120 03 Dallas won shootout 10 first period1 Detroit Bertuzzi 2 Dat Sauk second period2 Detroit Maltby 6 i Cleary 3 Detroit Draper 13 i Schneider i third period4 Dallas Morrow 13 Nagy 5 Dallas Ribeiro 17 Eriksson 6 Dallas Boucher 19 Halpern shootout Dallas 1 Lehtinen no Zubov g Ribeiro Detroit 0 Matsyuk no Cleary no Bertuzzi shots on Detroit 8117834 Power play 1 of 5 Detroit 0 of 5 goalie Dallas Smith 1251 34 shots31 Detroit hasek 35116 a20066 sabres 6 islanders 4 by islanders 1 0 34 Buffalo 5 0 16 first period1 Buffalo Roy 17 Pomin 2 by islanders Blake 39 Sil linger 3 Buffalo Vanek 38 Roy 4 Buffalo Drury 36 Pominville 5 Buffalo Stafford 13 Vanek 6 Buffalo Drury third period7 by islanders Kozlov 23 Hill 8 by islanders Poti 5 Asham 9 Buffalo Zubrus 23 Briere 10 by islanders Kozlov 24 Yashin shots on Galny islanders 128929 Buffalo 1261230 Power play islanders 3 of 8 Buffalo 3 of 7 goalie Sny islanders Dunham 4103 12 shots7 Tubielewicz second Buffalo Miller 37166 a18690 t227 Blackhawk 3 Blue jackets i Columbus 0 1 Chicago 2 1 03 first Chicago Sharp 19 Seabrook Chicago Havlat 25 Bourque second period3 Chicago Lapointe 13 Arkhipova 4 Colum bus chimera 14 Zherdev shots on Goa Columbus 1016632 Chi Cago 1011425 Power play 1 of 6 Chicago oof 2 Boucher 2113 25 shots22 Chicago Lalime 351 a14111 Sharks 4 coyotes 2 Phoenix 0 1 san Jose 0 2 24 second san Jose Rissmiller 6 Grier 2 san Jose erhoff 10 Vlasic 3 Phoenix Sjostrom 9 Roenick third san Jose Hannan 3 5 san Jose Cheechov 32 Thornton 6 Phoenix Reinprecht 9 Ballard shots on san Jose 1010525 Power play opportunities Phoenix 1 of 9 san Jose 1 of 3 goalie Phoenix Joseph 16292 25 shots21 san Jose Nabokov 22163 a17496 scoring leaders through March pts Crosby 116 Thornton 105 Lecavalier 103 Heatley 99 St Louis 99 Hossa 96 Briere 92 Savard 92 Sakic 91 Velanne 90 Ovechkis was Iginia 89 51 88 jagr 87 Jokinen 84 Malkin 83 Matsyuk 83 Spezza 82 Sedin 81 Alfredson 81 Whitney 79 Calendar april 8 last Day of regular season april 11 Stanley cup playoffs begin april 27may 13 i if world Champion ship Moscow May 29june 2 nil Combine Toronto june 11 last possible Day for Stanley cup finals june 15 deadline for first club elected salary arbitration june 23 nil draft Columbus Ohio july 1 free Agency signing period be gins july 5 deadline for player elected salary arbitration july 6 deadline for second club elected salary arbitration july 10 deadline for eligible players to elect group 5 free Agency july 20aug 4 Sala is held aug 6 deadline for salary arbitration a in Lary arbitration hear visions