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Bolts Own Opening Night

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 5, 2007

TAMPA - Opening night presented plenty of new parts for the Tampa Bay Lightning to unveil. A new logo, a new scoreboard, new uniforms and a handful of new players were all on display for the announced crowd of 19,454 to witness.

But it was the same old moving parts that led Tampa Bay to a 3-1 victory against New Jersey as Vinny Lecavalier scored twice and Marty St. Louis added three assists. It was the fifth consecutive opening-night victory for the Lightning, the longest active streak in the league. Tampa Bay also improved to 14-4-3 against New Jersey in the regular season since the 2001-02 season.
Johan Holmqvist finished with 26 saves to collect the victory as Tampa Bay improved to 8-4-2 all-time in season-opening games, 5-1 under John Tortorella.

'Obviously, the game is over, we still have 81 left, but it's good to start that way, it's good to get a win,' said Lecavalier, who won last year's goal-scoring title with 52 and scored the game-winner with 3:52 left in the game.

With all the emotion surrounding opening-night activities and trying to integrate eight new players into the lineup, it turned out to be a slow start for Tampa Bay. The Lightning looked sloppy with the puck early as New Jersey, normally a team that sits back and traps, used an aggressive forecheck to keep Tampa Bay penned in its own zone for long stretches in the first.

'We fought it for a while there,' Tortorella said. 'I think we were a little jumpy, and you have to give credit to Jersey, they just looked quicker than us. We had some unforced turnovers where we just struggled with the puck.'

New Jersey was able to grab the early lead with a power-play goal when Zach Parise collected a loose puck and fired a backhander from his knees that Brian Gionta tipped over Holmqvist's pad at 9:06 of the first. The Devils kept pressing, and with another power play late in the period nearly took a 2-0 lead with one second left in the period. But Holmqvist made a pad save on rookie Nicklas Bergfors.

'Homer was there for us,' St. Louis said. 'That's a big save, no doubt. Those are tough breaks if they go up 2-0.'

Tampa Bay came out looking sharper in the second as it began to up the tempo and get the transition game moving with sharper passes out of its zone. As the game began to wear on, the Bolts became a better team.

Lecavalier tied the score 9:35 into the second when he was sent into the zone by St. Louis, made a couple of deke moves and fired a low wrist shot to the far post past Martin Brodeur, who finished with 21 saves.

With the game even, Tampa Bay really settled into its game, and when the time came it capitalized on great passing play between St. Louis, Vinny Prospal and Lecavalier. St. Louis wheeled around to the top of the zone, drawing two New Jersey defenders with him, before finding Prospal positioned at the left post. With the puck on his backhand and Brodeur tracking him, Prospal zipped a blind pass to an open Lecavalier who put the puck into an open net for his 35th career winning goal.

'For some reason, I just knew that Vinny was there somewhere,' said Prospal, who added an empty-net goal with 58 seconds left. 'It feels great to see the play on video happen like that. It was just a great play in their zone. ... When we talk on the bench, me and Marty know somehow that he is there. The good players know how to get open and he got open, for us it's just a matter of getting the puck there to him.'

In the end, it was all new, yet so familiar.

'We found a way to win, and that's the most important thing in this league is finding a way and your game-breakers getting the job done,' Tortorella said.

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

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