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Bolts Puzzled After OT Loss

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 20, 2007

Updated: 11/20/2007 12:17 am

ATLANTA - This may be Thanksgiving week, but the Thrashers were gift-wrapped an early Christmas victory Monday.

Todd White scored a power-play goal 2:49 into overtime to cap a two-goal, third-period comeback and lift Atlanta to a 4-3 win against Tampa Bay, snapping the Lightning's five-game winning streak.

It marked the second power-play goal for Atlanta in the final six minutes of the third and into overtime, with the other coming on a two-man advantage with 5:18 left in the game to cut Tampa Bay's lead to one goal.

The game was marked with questionable calls by the officiating crew of Paul Devorski and Dave Jackson, but none more head-scratching than the holding call on Brad Richards in overtime to set up the game-winner.

With a puck battle taking place in the corner of Tampa Bay's zone, Richards appeared to give Slava Kozlov a push. After taking a stride along the boards, Kozlov fell to the ice and drew the penalty 2:27 into overtime.

"If that's a penalty in overtime, then it should be a parade to the penalty box throughout the game," Richards said. "It's frustrating because the players should decide the outcome of the game."

Tampa Bay defenseman Shane O'Brien also got called for a hooking call where it appeared the Atlanta player initiated contact with O'Brien's stick while killing off a penalty in the third. That led to Bryan Little's goal.

Lightning coach John Tortorella tried to stem his feelings after the game but couldn't hide his thoughts, though he wasn't talking about any specific play.

"The frustrating thing is organizations in this league pay millions upon millions of dollars, they are the ones that need to decide outcomes of games," he said. "I'm trying to stay away from criticizing some of the calls, but forget that, forget that. I just don't get it. And it makes the coaching job that much harder, how do you coach your players to play when they see that stuff out there."

What may have added to the frustration was some of the calls that weren't made, specifically when Pascal Dupuis knocked Brad Lukowich off the play in what could have been called an interference penalty early in the first period. Dupuis picked up the loose puck and fired a quick pass to Brad Larsen for a swift one-timer that beat Holmqvist 3:13 into the game.

Tampa Bay battled back with a pair of goals by Jan Hlavac and Vinny Lecavalier 33 seconds apart in the second period and looked in control of the game when Marty St. Louis scored to give the Lightning a 3-1 lead with 9:30 left in the game.

But after the penalty call to O'Brien and Little's score, the momentum clearly shifted and Ilya Kovalchuk was able to tie the game when a Hossa pass from the corner slid past Paul Ranger and under Filip Kuba to an open Kovalchuk with 2:23 left in the game.

"It's frustrating," O'Brien said. "I don't think I hooked the guy, but I know I can get my stick up like that, he's going to call that. But the penalty on Richie in overtime, I think that's just hockey. He wanted the puck more and then we were gone the other way, then it ends up to be a penalty.

"So it's just frustrating to lose that way."

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.

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