Carolina Rallies to Beat Tampa Bay

The Carolina Hurricanes will end 1998 where they had hoped, but where few expected them--with a healthy first-place lead in the Southeast Division.

Kevin Dineen and Gary Roberts scored 53 seconds apart early in the third period as Carolina rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night at Greensboro, N.C., and will take a seven-point lead over the Florida Panthers into their key division meeting Friday.

“There were things about this game that were very frustrating but we were able to turn it on instead of getting into a game where we were making mistakes, playing poorly, getting outworked,” said Carolina Coach Paul Maurice. “We settled ourselves down and got right to work and that is a great sign for our hockey team.

“This [game] kind of sums up our month of December, which I think was outstanding. It had ripples and wrinkles, and parts you didn’t like, but with the injuries we faced and the teams we played, to finish the month two games over .500 I think is fantastic.”

Ottawa 3, Buffalo 2--Andreas Dackell scored 2:24 into overtime to lift the Senators at Buffalo.

Dackell, stationed just right of Sabre goaltender Dominik Hasek, sneaked the puck behind Hasek for his seventh goal after Alexei Yashin fed him a pass from the left wing.

Shawn McEachern scored two goals for Ottawa, including the tying goal in the third period.

Hasek made 41 saves for the Sabres, who have lost their last two home games.

New Jersey 3, Washington 2--Bobby Holik scored his 16th goal of the season with 12:46 remaining at Washington as the Devils extended their road unbeaten streak to seven games.

Holik took a lead pass from Dave Andreychuk at center ice and kept the puck on a two-on-one break to beat goaltender Rick Tabaracci. Holik also had an assist in the first period, and his 18 points in December puts him among the league leaders for the month.

The Devils, 6-0-1 in their last seven road games, made their finest stand with the score 2-1 late in the second period when Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko and Scott Niedermayer killed off a two-minute, two-man disadvantage.

Pittsburgh 7, Florida 4--Kip Miller ended a 16-game goal drought with his first two-goal game in nearly eight years in helping the Penguins to a fight-filled victory at Pittsburgh.

Robert Lang and Martin Straka also scored twice as the Penguins won despite giving up two short-handed goals 40 seconds apart early in the third period.

Miller hadn’t scored twice in an NHL game since March 2, 1991, when he had two goals for Quebec in a game against Hartford.

Phoenix 3, N.Y. Rangers 1--Daniel Briere had a goal and an assist and Nikolai Khabibulin made 28 saves for the undermanned Coyotes at Phoenix.

Rick Tocchet and Bob Corkum also scored for Phoenix, which played without their top line.

Leading scorers Keith Tkachuk and Jeremy Roenick were injured in Monday’s 4-2 loss to the Kings and Dallas Drake was suspended for four games for boarding Doug Bodger late in the loss.

Boston 5, Nashville 2--Sergei Samsonov began a three-goal flurry in the second period at Nashville to help the Bruins end a three-game losing streak.