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Melrose's Message Gets Through

AP Photo

Lightning left wing Jussi Jokinen fires past Flyers goalie Martin Biron in the second period of the Bolts' 2-1 win Saturday in Philadelphia, the third game of their five-game road trip.

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON eerlendsson@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 9, 2008

Updated: 11/09/2008 02:25 am

PHILADELPHIA - Plenty of paint remained on the Lightning locker-room walls late Saturday night, no matter how hard Tampa Bay coach Barry Melrose and associate coach Rick Tocchet might have tried to peel it all back.

Melrose and Tocchet took turns spreading their gospel after an uninspiring start to Saturday's 2-1 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers. Mike Smith finished with 35 saves, and Vinny Prospal and Jussi Jokinen scored second-period goals to help Tampa Bay snap a two-game winless streak.

The Lightning won for the fourth time in the past six games while handing the Flyers their third consecutive loss. It also marked the 10th time in 13 games Tampa Bay has been in a one-goal decision, improving to 4-2-4 in those games.

But if the Lightning hadn't woken up after the first period, their effort might have resulted in a lopsided loss.

"We weren't happy with the way we came out in the first, we were flat and didn't have a lot of emotion," Smith said.

That showed up in the shot count and on the scoreboard when the buzzer went off to end the opening 20 minutes.

Tampa Bay had plenty of difficulty completing a pass or handling the puck. They were overskating plays, missing loose pucks and allowed Philadelphia to have the run of play for most of the period. And the odd time the Lightning found a way to get the puck into the Flyers' zone, it came right back out and Tampa Bay wound up chasing Philadelphia back up the ice. With the exception of a Vinny Lecavalier breakaway chance, the Lightning didn't mount much of an offensive attack as the Flyers held an 18-5 shot advantage. Daniel Briere, back after missing six games with an abdominal injury, scored the only goal at 17:20 while on a two-man-advantage power play.

Smith, who had allowed eight goals in his past two starts, helped keep Tampa Bay in position to pick up the victory, stopping 17 shots.

"Smitty gets a lot of credit for that, he kept us around," right wing Mark Recchi said.

At the intermission, the message was pointedly clear as both coaches took their turns in the dressing room telling the team to lift its level of play.

"I called them every name under the sun after the first period, I challenged their manhood," Melrose said. "And if I have to do that after every first period, I will, but hopefully I won't have to, because when we play hard we are an excellent team, and that's what I hope to get through to them."

Recchi, who has six assists in the past six games, said the message was received loud and clear.

"They told us that the first period wasn't good enough, and we know that," he said. "We weren't ready to play and we had to get better. We have to give the guys credit; the coaches came in and gave us a little heck and we responded."

The Lightning looked like a completely different team in the second period. They got the puck in deep and found open spaces, getting up the ice and flipping the fortunes on the shot counter, finishing with a 12-5 advantage in shots in the period. Jokinen scored his fifth goal of the season - all in the past six games - when he was unchecked coming down center ice and took a pass from Recchi for a breakaway at 7:58. Prospal would score his first goal since Oct. 21 at 13:35 on a crisp passing play started by Marty St. Louis, who passed to Lecavalier, who then found Prospal.

While the third period wasn't quite as good as the second, it was light years away from the effort in the first and Tampa Bay held off a Flyers team that had been held to one goal or less only one other time this season.

"Effort is the most important thing, and we came out in the second and third period hitting, on loose pucks and we played an entirely different game," Melrose said.

So just what was the difference in the team's play?

"The energy, you could tell in the first period we were lackadaisical with the puck, we weren't hitting, losing puck battles and it showed all over the ice," Smith said. "It shows that when we work hard and finish checks and do all the right things we can" play a good game.

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