NEW YORK, 3 March 2004 — Nikolai Khabibulin made 16 saves for his 35th career shutout as the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning blanked the Colorado Avalanche 3-0 in a match-up between two of the National Hockey League’s premier teams in Denver Monday.
Tampa Bay won its fifth straight game and has not lost in regulation time in 12 games (9-0-1-2).
The Lightning also set a franchise record with its 18th road victory of the season while moving into a tie for the overall Eastern Conference lead with the Philadelphia Flyers and the Ottawa Senators.
Tampa Bay outshot the Avalanche 29-16, including 10-4 in the third period when a pair of goals put the game out of reach.
Brad Richards scored his 21st goal of the season at 5:21 of the first period to put Tampa Bay in front, slipping a shot from the right side of the net past David Aebischer to open the scoring. After a scoreless second period, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis, into an empty net, added third period goals for Tampa Bay as Colorado continued to struggle on home ice.
The Avalanche are second in the Western Conference overall standings, but have scored just six goals in their past seven home games while compiling an 0-4-2-1 record in that span. Colorado is also just 1-5-1-1 in its last eight games overall.
The Avalanche was once again without star forward Peter Forsberg, who sat out his seventh straight game with a groin injury.
St. Louis stretched his consecutive point streak to 12 games with his goal. Lecavalier also had an assist while Ruslan Fedotenko chipped in a pair of assists. It was Khabibulin’s third shutout of the season.
In other NHL games played Monday, Jason Ward scored with 24 seconds left in regulation to lead the Montreal Canadiens past the New Jersey Devils 2-1 in Montreal.
In Nashville, Matt Keith scored with less than two minutes remaining in regulation to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 2-2 tie with the Nashville Predators.
