Originally published Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 9:09 PM

Vancouver Canucks lose at Tampa Bay | NHL

Martin St. Louis scored two third-period goals, Antero Niittymaki stopped 39 shots and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 in an NHL game Tuesday night.

By The Associated Press

NHL scoreboard

TAMPA, Fla. — Martin St. Louis scored two third-period goals, Antero Niittymaki stopped 39 shots and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 Tuesday night.

"He kept us in the game," St. Louis said. "Niitty made some big saves for us and I thought we came out strong and played some pretty good minutes in the third."

Tampa Bay has won four in a row for the first time since November 2007. Niittymaki improved to 7-0-1 over his last eight starts.

"He's definitely earning his keep," Tampa Bay coach Rick Tocchet said. "We just keep getting great play from him."

Vancouver got a goal from Ryan Kesler.

The Canucks are 2-3 on the first leg of a league-record 14-game trip. The team is on the road because GM Place in Vancouver is being used for the Olympic Games, which start Friday.

"We played a pretty good game," Canucks left wing Daniel Sedin said. "It was a step in the right direction. When you're in a tough stretch like this, you've got to play good defensively and make the simple play."

Niittymaki stopped a short-handed breakaway by Alexandre Burrows in the second period.

"It took us close to 40 minutes to solve him and he shut the door in the third," Kesler said.

Notes

• Tampa Bay signed forward Mark Parrish, a former Seattle Thunderbird, to a one-year contract and assigned him to Norfolk (Va.) of the American Hockey League.

Parrish, 33, has 216 NHL goals.

• Six teams will open the 2010-11 season in Europe, the fourth consecutive year the league will begin play overseas. Boston, Carolina, Columbus, Minnesota, Phoenix and San Jose will combine to play six games in Europe.

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