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By CARTER GADDIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2007

Updated: 10/26/2007 12:45 am

TAMPA - Lightning coach John Tortorella might not want to acknowledge it, but there's no denying his team has been much better so far this season on home ice than on the road.

A 5-2 drubbing of the Atlantic Division-leading Flyers on Thursday at the St. Pete Times Forum got Tampa Bay off to the second 5-0 home start in franchise history, the first since the team went 7-0-1 at home to start 2002-03.

'I'm not going to make comparisons of the team home and away,' Tortorella said. 'Ask about the game tonight, please. ... I'm not going to get prophetic here, as far as home and away.'

Fair enough. Perhaps it is a bit too soon to try to draw conclusions from the Lightning's undefeated record at home and their 0-3 record as visitors. Maybe it's just an early statistical fluke that Tampa Bay has outscored its home-ice opponents, 21-8, while being outscored, 15-8, on the road.

But considering one of the major issues for the Lightning last season was their inability to consistently gain points at home - it took a five-game win streak in February to get Tampa Bay over .500 at the Forum - perhaps it's not so insignificant that this season has gotten off to such a fine start at home.

'Last year we struggled at home for some reason, but it should be this way,' said Lightning center Brad Richards, who turned in the 10th multigoal game of his career with one in the first and an empty-netter in the third. 'It's a great spot to play. Our team is built to play that up-tempo style, and we've done that so far this year. We haven't done the same on the road, but we're taking care of business here, so it doesn't put as much pressure on you on the road.'

Tortorella did have a point, though: The game Thursday was worth talking about.

It featured a semi-brilliant performance by goalie Johan Holmqvist, whose 21 saves included several breathtaking stabs and kicks and catches. He also let in one of the most inexplicable goals of the season when he left the puck behind his net, where it was picked up and deposited easily into the goal mouth by Philadelphia's Jeff Carter to cut an early 2-0 deficit in half.

'Finally, we told Holmer not to play the puck,' Tortorella said. 'Let the ... thing go around the board and just make the saves. And he did tonight.'

The game featured a couple of fights, the first between Vinny Lecavalier and Philly's Scott Hartnell - Lecavalier's second fight in as many nights - and the other between Lightning right wing Andre Roy and Flyers left wing Riley Cote. Lecavalier got the better of Hartnell, but Roy's scrap was a draw.

In addition to Richards' burst of goal scoring, two Lightning newcomers made an impression.

Michel Ouellet's first goal with Tampa Bay made it 4-2 with 6:34 to play. Just as important as the goal itself, in Tortorella's mind, was the way Ouellet got it done.

It happened when Flyers newcomer Daniel Briere committed a turnover in front of his own net. Ouellet jumped on the puck, carried it toward the corner, spotted Chris Gratton flashing to the net and fired toward goalie Antero Niittymaki.

While it appeared Gratton guided the puck into the net (he was originally awarded the goal), Ouellet got the goal when the scoring was changed a few minutes later.

'It was good forechecking by Mike,' Tortorella said, 'on a huge turnover by them.'

The Lightning improved to 12-1 in their last 13 games against the Flyers, who once led the all-time series against Tampa Bay 9-29-9.

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

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