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How Sweet It Is: Lightning Feel The Love

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 15, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - The City of Brotherly Love has been downright neighborly to the Lightning through the past few seasons.

And on Valentine's Day, it was extra sweet for Tampa Bay, which won its seventh game on the road in the past eight away from home with a 5-3 victory against Philadelphia. The win marked the eighth consecutive win for the Lightning at the Wachovia Center.

The victory also improved Tampa Bay to 8-3-1 in its past 12 games. The Lightning remain in the picture in the Southeast Division, six points behind Carolina with two games in hand on the Hurricanes.

Marty St. Louis had a goal and two assists, Dan Boyle had a goal and an assist and Johan Holmqvist stopped 27 shots for his 20th win of the season. Jason Ward, Jan Hlavac and Vinny Prospal also scored for Tampa Bay, which has picked up points in eight consecutive games.

"We are just a desperate hockey team right now," said Boyle, who scored his 65th goal with the Lightning, tying Pavel Kubina for the franchise record for a defenseman.

"With so few games left in the season, it's no secret we have to win a lot of them to have a chance."

In the opening 10 minutes, Tampa Bay picked up right where it left off Tuesday, setting the tone in the neutral zone and tilting the ice in the offensive zone. Prospal set his career high with his 26th goal 5:31 into the period when Flyers defenseman Jim Vandermeer lost control of the puck along the end boards. St. Louis scooped up the loose puck and fed a quick pass to Prospal in front.

But once the midpoint of the period hit, the game shifted and Joffrey Lupul tied the score when he got a skate on Mike Richards' centering pass through the crease. Although it appeared Lupul moved his skate to redirect the puck into the net, the goal was allowed to stand at the 11-minute mark.

Steve Downie put Philadelphia ahead in the closing minute when he came out of the penalty box with the Flyers still down a man and took a Richards pass to spring a 2-on-1 break. Downie beat Holmqvist through his legs with 35.3 seconds left in the period.

"I thought we started out well, then we started turning the puck over, our power play doesn't do anything and momentum turns," Lightning coach John Tortorella said.

But as the Lightning have done so well of late, they shifted momentum back in their favor in a big way.

With their third consecutive power-play chance, starting from the 17:17 mark of the first, the Lightning finally cashed in when Brad Richards' shot from the right point was blocked, but the puck bounced to Boyle, who settled it with his skate and fired a quick shot past Flyers goalie Martin Biron 2:13 into the second to tie the game.

Hlavac gained the lead for Tampa Bay just after a fourth consecutive power play expired when he one-timed a shot from the left circle off a feed from Michel Ouellet that found the small space of Biron's right shoulder at 10:12. St. Louis provided a two-goal cushion with 3:25 left in the second period when he got a soft deflection on a Boyle shot.

By outscoring the Flyers 3-0 in the period and outshooting them 11-6, Tampa Bay has outscored its opponents 10-1 in the past seven games in the second period and outshot their foes 80-45.

"I don't know what to tell you," Brad Richards said of the team's second-period success lately.

"We've talked a lot about getting off to better starts in games, which we haven't maybe done the way we would like. So I think it's just one of those stats that you can find when things are going good."

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

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