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Lightning Snap Out Of It

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2008

NEW YORK - The first 19 minutes, 37 seconds of the third period Tuesday felt like a blur to the Lightning. But at the end, things came a little more into focus.

Tampa Bay hung on for a 5-3 victory against the Rangers, snapping a seven-game winless streak with its first victory since Dec. 20. It was also the Lightning's first road victory since Dec. 11 and the first in regulation since they beat Washington on Nov. 10.

Tampa Bay completed its longest road trip of the season with four of a possible eight points and remains in last place in the Eastern Conference.

But it sure wasn't easy. Not by a long shot.

The Lightning built a 4-1 lead on Vinny Prospal's goal with 9:09 left in the second period and did it by staying in complete control of the game. After a poor play by Karri Ramo behind the net led to an early New York lead, the Lightning settled into a steady flow, controlling the neutral zone and keeping New York's chances to a minimum.

Once the second period ended, however, shortly after the Rangers cut the lead to 4-2, things got interesting for Tampa Bay, which seemed to spend the entire final period killing off penalties.

And considering how Tampa Bay has seen leads slip away with poor play in the third period this year - they were outscored 59-38 in the third entering the game - it nearly turned into another meltdown.

"It's obviously in the back of your mind, and you want to finish things off and end this road trip right," center Brad Richards said. "To go out there and shoot yourself in the foot like we did, it was tough on us, but it's a good character builder. It looked ugly as hell sometimes, but we found a way to win."

Things started to unravel when Craig MacDonald took a double-minor for high sticking that led to Michal Rozsival's power-play goal at 4:22 on the first half of the four-minute man advantage. Then Chris Gratton took a tripping call at 9:21, followed by an inexplicable penalty for having too many men on the ice, giving New York a two-man advantage for 1:23.

By then, it almost seemed inevitable that the Rangers, with their top-level offensive talent, were going to tie it. New York, however, kept firing pucks wide of the net, and the one shot that was on target was stopped by Ramo.

"We took a couple of penalties we really shouldn't have there, and that obviously puts a little more pressure to have to kill those off," defenseman Paul Ranger said. "Blood was boiling a little bit, but we got it done."

Killing off the 5-on-3, however wasn't enough as the Lightning penalty killers were called on again with 3:30 left when Jason Ward sent a puck over the glass and took a delay of game penalty. Surely, the Rangers would make them pay, right?

"I thought Ramo was spectacular," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "I mean, how many minutes were we down in the third period? We found a way to win, but we still have a lot of work to do as far as understanding situations and just having some common sense.

"I thought six or seven guys really carried the team"

One of those was Gratton, who broke a nine-game scoreless streak with a pair of goals and an assist. Gratton had not scored a goal since Dec. 4.

"Any way we can chip in and help out, whether it's by helping out on offense or doing something on defense, we need to do it to help take some pressure off, because our big guys have been carrying us most of the year," Gratton said.

Gratton's contributions almost went for naught as the Lightning nearly found another way to snatch a loss out of the jaws of victory. The game wasn't sealed until Marty St. Louis scored his 200th career goal into an empty net with three seconds left.

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

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