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Lightning Beginning To Click

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By CARTER GADDIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 11, 2007

Updated: 11/10/2007 11:56 pm

WASHINGTON - The road was a problem for the Lightning not so long ago. To be frank, for about two weeks there, just about any slab of ice they happened to come across - home or away - wasn't exactly their comfort zone.

That no longer seems to be the case. After a 5-2 victory Saturday against the Washington Capitals extended Tampa Bay's winning streak to three games (including two in a row on the road), the Lightning find themselves back at the break-even mark (8-8-1) and threatening to sneak back into the top eight in the Eastern Conference.

"We didn't get anything for six games," said left wing Vinny Prospal, who scored the go-ahead goal Saturday (his 11th) and assisted on two more. "And now, for us, we're kind of getting back to what we let slip away. It's working fine right now."

To be sure, goaltending has been a huge part of the resurgence. Johan Holmqvist, who stopped 62 of 64 shots he faced in consecutive-night victories against the Panthers and Hurricanes on Wednesday and Thursday, was more the OK with 23 more saves Saturday.

"The games have been so up and down as a team," Holmqvist said. "And I think we played pretty good and we didn't get results. And then we had some really bad nights and we got the win. I personally have felt pretty good the whole way along."

In other words, the resurgence has happened for reasons in addition to steady play in net.

"When we were losing, everybody was playing bad," Prospal said. "It wasn't Holmqvist's fault or anybody's fault. Right now, we're playing well as a team and playing really good defensively, and it shows with him."

Saturday, for about half the game, both teams kept it tight on defense. They combined for 13 shots in the first period, and neither team even drew a penalty until Tampa Bay's Marty St. Louis was called for tripping 4:09 into the second period.

After the Lightning successfully killed that two-minute minor, Washington lost a bit of momentum. It helped that St. Louis - who began the game playing on a line with Brad Richards and Jan Hlavac - had begun the second period back on a line with Prospal and Vinny Lecavalier.

The Lightning broke through four seconds into their first power play when Lecavalier won the faceoff in Washington's end, Michel Ouellet flipped a pass off Lecavalier's skate and Filip Kuba one-timed the loose puck past Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig with 7:34 to play in the second period.

"Getting that first goal was important, because you could tell how that game was going," said Lightning coach John Tortorella, whose team outscored the Hurricanes and Capitals 10-3 during the road trip to improve to 2-7-0 away from home. "Both teams were really playing good, strong defense."

Washington tied it with 1:40 to play in the period when defenseman Mike Green carried into the Tampa Bay zone, tiptoed around defenseman Shane O'Brien, avoided another diving defender and flipped a pass to Alex Ovechkin, who one-timed it past Holmqvist for his 11th goal.

The Lightning regained the lead when Prospal scored on a two-on-one break with Lecavalier less than two minutes into the third period. St. Louis made it 3-1 less than a minute later with his fifth goal.

Tampa Bay's first three-goal lead came after Hlavac left with a bloody nose broken by Green's stick with 8:55 to play. The resulting four-minute double minor for Green set up Ryan Craig's redirect goal on a Prospal pass, which made it 4-1 with 7:38 to go.

"Chances were hard to come by throughout the game by both teams," Tortorella said. "It was one of those games where both teams were pretty stingy. But we need to keep our patience and just keep trying to forecheck and try to find a way to get a couple of chances. Getting a couple of goals early in the third period, obviously, is the key."

Reporter Carter Gaddis can be reached at (813) 259-8291 or igaddis@tampatrib.com.

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