Malone scores in OT to give Lightning win

TORONTO — Antero Niittymaki shut the Maple Leafs down, and
Ryan Malone rewarded him with a win.

Malone scored at 2:21 of overtime, giving the Tampa Bay
Lightning a 2-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday
night.

“We really met the challenge tonight,” coach Rick Tocchet said.
“We killed five, six penalties in a row. Guys really willed (the
win) and obviously Nittymaki played unbelievable for us.”

Malone tapped in an awkward shot that bounced over Jonas
Gustavsson moments after John Mitchell nearly won it for the
Maple Leafs on a pretty rush, with the puck nearly taking
another funny hop into the goal.

Malone’s goal stood up after a video review.

Niittymaki turned aside chance after chance while Vincent
Lecavalier opened the scoring for the Lightning (5-4-4), who won
their first road game of the season (1-4-1).

But Ian White scored a power-play goal at 5:04 of the third
period for the Maple Leafs (1-7-5), who have lost four straight
games in extra time and remained winless at home (0-4-2) in
front of a crowd of 19,301.

The Maple Leafs wasted their first six power-play opportunities,
including a two-man advantage for 49 seconds early in the second
and another in the final minutes.

“We have to persevere, we can’t change what we’re doing because
we’re right there knocking on the door,” Leafs coach Ron Wilson
said. “We’ve just got to find a way to knock the door completely
down.”

One Leafs player that Niittymaki repeatedly turned aside was
Phil Kessel, playing his first game for Toronto since being
acquired in a September trade with Boston for two first-round
picks and a second-round selection. He had been sidelined while
recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.

The speedy 22-year-old looked strong on the puck and showed no
fear going into the corners when he had to. But Kessel took a
hard hit from Mattias Ohlund.

“You’ve got to give him a double thumbs up for taking a hit like
that, a massive hit and coming back and still being a dominant
player every shift,” Wilson said.

In the second period, Gustavsson played a puck that might have
been icing behind his goal and fired it into the neutral zone,
where Ohlund picked it off.

The Swedish defenseman charged in and fired a slapshot that
Gustavsson kicked right to Lecavalier, who fired the rebound
into the empty net at 18:34 of the middle period for his second
of the season.

It was the 12th time in 13 games the Maple Leafs surrendered the
first goal.

The timing could not have been better for the Tampa Bay captain,
who is off to a poor start but showed some flashes of his old
brilliance with the entire Canadian Olympic team leadership in
attendance.

They were in town to also take a long look at young Steven
Stamkos, who has 11 goals and five assists in 13 games. Martin
St. Louis would also have been on Team Canada’s radar screen.

Kessel, a candidate for the U.S. Olympic team, received a loud
ovation each time he touched the puck and often looked dangerous
once it was on his stick.

“I had a ton of chances let me tell you,” Kessel said. "I’ve got
to find some way to get some of those to go in. First game, got
to get better.

Gustavsson and Niittymaki traded saves throughout the game,
keeping what could have been a high-scoring affair very tight.
Gustavsson set aside 30 shots and Niittymaki 40.

NOTES: With his fighting major, Niklas Hagman now has nine
penalty minutes this season. He had four all last year. …
Kessel, who signed a $27 million, five-year deal, after he was
acquired, took Jiri Tlusty’s spot in the lineup. Tlusty was
returned to the AHL Marlies on Monday. … Forwards Jamal Mayers
and Jay Rosehill and defenseman Jeff Finger were healthy
scratches for the Maple Leafs, while defensemen Kurtis Foster,
Matt Smaby and Paul Ranger were the Lightning’s scratches.

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