TAMPA, Fla. Kenny Clark Super Bowl Jersey . -- The Phoenix Coyotes went extra time to get a much needed victory. Radim Vrbata scored the lone shootout goal to lead the Coyotes past the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Monday night. Vrbata beat Ben Bishop with a backhand. Mike Smith stopped all three Lightning shootout shots. Brandon McMillan, Martin Erat and Mikkel Boedker scored for the Coyotes, who trailed eighth-place Dallas by one point in the Western Conference. Phoenix was coming off a 3-2 loss Saturday at Washington, a game which the Capitals had three unanswered third-period goals. "Were right in the hunt," Smith said. "Were in the thick of things, too, and every point matters right now. So I think you see a desperation from guys on the ice, lying down, blocking shots." Ondrej Palat got the Lightning even at 3-all with his second goal of the game, coming from the low slot with the Tampa Bay net empty and 37.2 seconds left in regulation. Palat also had an assist. "I thought we did a lot of things well tonight," Phoenix coach Dave Tippett said. "Even though they got a late one on us, we found a way to get points, and thats the biggest thing about our season right now. We need points every night." Tampa Bay, 1-4-2 since the Olympic break ended, also got a goal from Tyler Johnson. After Erat scored following an errant defensive zone pass by Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman 2:13 into the third, Boedker put the Coyotes ahead 3-2 with a rebound goal at 7:48. Bishop ended up out of position when Hedmans pass on Erats goal took a bad bounce. "We were just way too lackadaisical," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said of Erats goal. "The third one, weve run that coverage a thousand times. Its a blown assignment. Those dont go in in midget hockey, let alone the NHL. Or they shouldnt, anyway." Palat gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead from in-close off a pass from Ryan Callahan with 52.3 seconds left in the second. Johnson scored his fourth short-handed goal and 20th overall this season to put the Lightning up 1-0 at 11:26 of the first. With Steven Stamkos off for hooking, the rookie went around stumbling defenceman Keith Yandle and put a backhand past Smith. After not having a short-handed goal last season, Tampa Bay has nine in 2013-14. The Lightning have a short-handed goal in three straight games and six of their past 15. McMillan tied it at 1 on a rebound goal 61 seconds into the second after Bishop stopped Yandles shot. Tampa Bay defenceman Sami Salo left after three shifts in the first period with a lower body injury. Stamkos was pointless in his third straight game since returning from a broken right shin that sidelined him for 45 games. "Its going to take him a little time to get back to normal," Cooper said. Stamkos played 23:31 and had two shots. NOTES: Boedker stopped a 13-game goal drought. ... The Lightning will unveil a statue of former captain Dave Andreychuk in a pregame ceremony April 5 before hosting Dallas. It will depict Andreychuk hoisting the Stanley Cup over his head after the Lightning won it in 2004. ... Phoenix C Martin Hanzal has resumed skating, but missed his fourth consecutive game with a lower body injury. He had a goal and three assists in the Coyotes 6-3 victory over Tampa Bay Nov. 16. ... Coyotes D David Schlemko (lower body injury) is returning to Phoenix for treatment. ... Coyotes D Brandon Gormley made his NHL debut. ... Vinny Prospal was at the game scouting for the New York Rangers. The forward announced his retirement following a 16-year NHL career in January. Preston Smith Super Bowl Jersey .Jeff Green, playing in his second preseason game after missing the first four because of a calf strain, had 18 points. The Celtics (3-3) shot 47.2 per cent from the floor and made 15 of 37 3-point attempts. Elgton Jenkins Super Bowl Jersey . Wheeler scored two goals, including the winner, as the Winnipeg Jets beat the Minnesota Wild 6-4 on Friday in a game that featured a seven-goal first period.AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The Masters is underway with three shots right down the middle of the fairway. Just not terribly far. Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus hit the ceremonial tee shots Thursday morning with fans already lining both sides of the first fairway. Still competitive even after all these years, Nicklaus went last and hit a drive that went about a yard past Players shot. The "Big Three" combined to win 13 green jackets, including seven in a row at the start of the 1960s. This Masters is far less predictable. Without Tiger Woods or a dominant figure, its seen as the most wide-open Masters in years. A bunch of brash Augusta rookies are eager to fill Woods shoes. And the last two dozen majors have been divvied up among 21 winners. Early Thursday, Stewart Cink, Ian Woosnam and Jonas Blixt were all 1-under-par, leading among the early starters. Ryan Moore, who won the Par 3 contest Wednesday, thinks it might be time to break the curse of that winner never winning the tournament. "You never know," he said. "Someone has got to break that (Par 3) curse at some point in time, so hopefully its me. Who knows? I might go shoot 8 under or something, make a couple of hole-in-ones." As unlikely as that sounds, pretty much everything else is up for grabs at this Masters. Recovering from back surgery, Woods is sitting out the opening major of the year for the first time since turning pro. Even as his dominance waned in recent years, he was always the clear-cut favourite coming into Augusta, where he has won four times. Now, as Moore said, who knows? Jason Day, Sergio Garcia and former Masters champion Zach Johnson are the only players from the top 10 who have won anywhere in the world this year. Only one of the past seven winners on the PGA Tour was ranked in the top 75. "I think if youre outside the top 50 in the world this week, youve got a great chance," U.S. Open champion Justin Rose said with a laugh. Woods is out of golf until the summer, but the show goes on at a tournament that rarely fails to deliver plenty of drama. "We miss Tiger, as does the entire golf world," Masters chairman Billy Payne said. "Nevertheless, this is the Masters. This is what we hope is the best tournament in the world, one of the greatest sporting events. Darnell Savage Jr. Super Bowl Jersey. And I think we will have a very impressive audience and have another great champion to crown this year." That could be Phil Mickelson, who last year won the British Open at age 42 and now has a chance to join Woods and Arnold Palmer with a fourth green jacket. It could be Adam Scott, trying to take over as the worlds No. 1 player and join Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus as the only back-to-back winners. While Woods last won a green jacket in 2005, he had finished out of the top six only once since then. Thats what made him such a compelling figure at Augusta. He always seemed to be there. "Its a huge loss," Scott said. "But, as every year here, this event produces something special no matter what. It just has a way of doing it. Its not going to involve Tiger this year, but it will involve someone else and it will be a memorable event anyway." Rose falls on the side of experience -- knowing where to miss, knowing where you cant afford to miss, where the hole locations tend to be on the contoured greens and using the slope to get the ball close. "Always you can have the unknowns," he said. "But I would say 15 guys are pretty strong favourites." Fuzzy Zoeller was the last Augusta rookie to claim the green jacket in 1979, and the only other ones to do it were the first two: Horton Smith and Gene Sarazen. Then again, there are 24 first-timers in the 98-player field, a record (except for the first tournament), and none of them will concede an insurmountable learning curve. Besides, no one is dominating golf at the moment. Jimmy Walker has the most PGA Tour wins (three) this season, but this is his first Masters. Scott had a chance to go to No. 1 three weeks ago at Bay Hill, but he lost a three-shot lead in the final round to Matt Every, who had never won in his career. "Doesnt matter if youve played here once or if youve played here 50 times," said Patrick Reed, who has won three times in the past eight months. "When it comes down to it, its just going to be that whoever is playing the best is going to walk away with the trophy." Who knows? Maybe it will be Moore. Hes certainly not fretting over a supposed curse. "Im not afraid of it," he said. ' ' '