Lightning Shock Coyotes

Derek Wilkinson made the most of his opportunity.

Making his first NHL appearance since Jan. 12, 1998, Wilkinson stopped 36 shots as Tampa Bay snapped a 10-game winless streak with a 4-2 victory Friday night over the Phoenix Coyotes.

"I've been saying all along and I'll repeat it, when you get goaltending as we did tonight, you have a chance to win," said Lightning coach Jacques Demers, who tied Punch Imlach for 11th place with 402 career wins. "We got major-league, NHL goaltending."

Chris Gratton and Benoit Hogue, who had two goals, scored 1:13 apart late in the third period, breaking a 1-1 tie.

"We had so many chances and it was still 1-1, I was saying we deserve that game," Hogue said. "We worked to hard to let it go away. Everybody is pumped up and smiling. Everybody knew they gave a good 60 minutes."

Gratton gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead, positioned near the left post to redirect Sandy McCarthy's pass with 2:45 remaining. Hogue made it 3-1 from the low slot with 1:32 left and closed out the scoring with an empty-net effort in the final second.

Rick Tocchet scored twice for Phoenix, the second making it 3-2 with 59.8 seconds remaining. The Coyotes, who lost three straight, were playing the first game of a season-longest seven-game road trip.

"We didn't play," Phoenix coach Jim Schoenfeld said. "We had more odd-man rushes against us tonight that we should have in a month. We have to get rededicated to our style of hockey or we're going to have a hard time winning hockey games on this trip."

Wilkinson, Tampa Bay's fifth different goalie this season, was recalled from Cleveland of the IHL on Thursday. He preserved the 1-1 deadlock during an early third-period Phoenix power play, robbing Greg Adams and Tocchet from point-blank range.

Wilkinson, whose last NHL victory came on Dec. 31, 1997, also made an outstanding pad sve on Oleg Tverdovsky following a turnover with nine minutes left.

"It's nice to win, wherever you are," Wilkinson said. "We competed and good things happened. Sometimes you don't get positive results when you compete as hard as you can, but we did and it's something to feel good about."

The teams traded first-period goals. Tocchet's 19th of the season put the Coyotes up 1-0 at 4:13. Tampa Bay got the equalizer at 7:50 from Wendel Clark, who entered with just two goals in his past 19 games.

Mired in a 4-for-49 power-play drought, Clark scored his team-leading 21st goal on the Lightning's first man-advantage opportunity against the NHL's top penalty-killing unit. The puck deflected off Clark's skate after the left wing fanned on a scoring chance from near the left post.

The power play was set up when Gerald Diduck received a five-minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct for driving Darcy Tucker into the end boards.

Tucker, who was cut above the right eye and received 20 stitches, returned later in the period.

Diduck's five-minute boarding penalty lasted an extra 11 seconds because he was not replaced in the penalty box. The Coyotes did not get back to full strength until play was stopped by an icing call.

Tampa Bay's Stephane Richer had three assists.

Following the game, the Lightning recalled defenseman Mike McBain from Cleveland and replaced him with defenseman Karel Betik.

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