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Bolts Get Back On Track, Stay Unbeaten At Home

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 21, 2007

Updated: 10/21/2007 12:22 am

TAMPA - Try as some might, seeking something shaky about Tampa Bay's dominant 6-2 victory against Atlanta might be like searching for the first drop of water on the Forum ice.

Vinny Prospal had his third multi-goal game of the season, Marty St. Louis scored his first of the year to go with a pair of assists, Mathieu Darche scored his first NHL goal in nearly six years, and nine different players found the score sheet. Tampa Bay snapped a two-game losing streak and won its fourth consecutive home game to start the season, the third time in franchise history they have started 4-0 at home - the Lightning started the 2002-03 season with five consecutive home wins, while in 2003-04 they won their first four on home ice.

Yet for a brief period, slight as it turned out to be, things were a little skittish when Ilya Kovalchuk snuck about 15 feet behind the Lightning defense and took a long pass that led to his breakaway goal at 14:19 of the first period that tied the game at 1.

It was a play the Thrashers look for at various times throughout a game, and it was a play the Lightning coaching staff warned the team about. It turned out to be Atlanta's second shot of the game, and Lightning coach John Tortorella let his team know about his displeasure.

'We lost ourselves there for a little bit, and I take the blame for that one because I lost myself a little bit in where we need to just stay the course there and continue,' Tortorella said. 'I get ticked off a bit, and I think I rattled the bench a little bit at a bad time because we were playing good hockey. ... But put that responsibility on me because I don't think our team needed to hear it, from that point in time we just needed to continue to play.'

If the Lightning were rattled, they sure didn't show it. At the time of Kovalchuk's goal, which gave the defending division champions some life in their second game of the post-Bob Hartley era, Tampa Bay was outshooting Atlanta 12-2 and finished with a 17-2 shot advantage in the opening period.

But it wasn't until after Chris Gratton stole the puck at the offensive blue line just over four minutes after Kovalchuk's goal and took a receive pass from Michel Ouellet did Tampa Bay regain the lead. After Gratton stripped the puck, he charged the net, and after getting the puck back he sent the puck on net hoping for a rebound. Instead, he found the back of the net with 1:04 left in the first period. Things got back on track after that for a Lightning team that steamrolled the reeling Thrashers for the second time this season and has outscored Atlanta 11-4 in the first two meetings.

'When you are the visiting team and you battle back to make it 1-1, then you are able to score that second goal to get the lead back, it can be kind of deflating,' Gratton said. 'I was looking for either a rebound scenario or hoping one would go in off Darche, but I guess it went straight in. It's nice to get rewarded on those types of plays.'

Tampa Bay broke things open in the second with a three-goal outburst, which included a breakaway goal from Vinny Lecavalier that literally froze Atlanta goaltender Johan Hedberg 5:36 into the second. St. Louis and Darche (who scored his first since Nov. 10, 2001) scored 39 seconds apart in the final two minutes to officially make the game a blowout

Prospal, who opened the scoring, closed things out for the Lightning with a power-play goal in the third period - his seventh of the season - and let Tampa Bay put the prior two losses behind it.

'We're fighting, and we're playing the right way,' Tortorella said. 'If you play the right way and you bring honesty to your game as far as battles and going zone to zone, more often than not those results will come to you. I respect the way they stayed with it tonight.'

Even when things looked to be off track for a few brief moments.

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

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