Bolts' Stanley Cup quest starts with Roloson

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It might come down to one game, one moment, one save.

You're there or you're not.

That's the life of a playoff goaltender.

"You never know when the opportunity is going to come around again," Lightning goaltender Dwayne Roloson said.

He's 41, the oldest active goaltender in the NHL and he feels born again. He'll help lead the Bolts into the playoffs for the first time in four years.

It has been five years since Roloson played postseason hockey, the 2006 playoffs, a memorable run, but still bittersweet.

Dwayne Roloson got hot at just the right time, and the Edmonton Oilers, seeded eighth in the Western Conference, stunned top-seed Detroit, then beat San Jose and Anaheim to reach the Stanley Cup finals against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Roloson had all 12 Oilers wins in the playoffs and a 2.33 goals-against average. But in the third period of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals, his run ended when Edmonton teammate (now Lightning teammate) Marc-Andre Bergeron drove Carolina's Andrew Ladd into the goal mouth, taking out Roloson. Knee injury - done.

"You never know what can happen," Roloson said.

Carolina went on to win the Cup in seven games. The Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP went to 22-year-old Carolina rookie Cam Ward ... a goalie.

It doesn't matter how young or old you are, how famous or not. When a goalie gets hot, and stays hot, it's amazing to watch.

Just ask Lightning founder and Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito.

Forty years ago, Esposito and Bobby Orr powered the defending Stanley Cup champions, the big, bad Boston Bruins, into the 1971 playoffs. The Bruins had scored a monstrous 399 goals, Esposito with an incomprehensible, record-shattering 76. Nothing could stop them, certainly not Montreal in the first round.

Then a lanky Canadiens rookie goaltender named Ken Dryden, with just six NHL games to his name, stepped between the pipes.

"I called him 'The Octopus' because it looked like he was all arms and legs, flopping all over the damn place," Esposito said.

The Bruins fell in seven games.

But eight years later, Esposito, then with the Rangers, was part of an improbable run to the 1979 finals against Montreal, mostly because of New York goaltender John Davidson, whose career had been plagued by injuries and general non-greatness.

"He was unbelievable," Esposito said. "Sometimes during the season, a bus could go between his legs. But he sure played great in the playoffs, I'll tell you that."

There have been many memorable runs by goaltenders in NHL history. Patrick Roy owns three or four of them. Martin Brodeur owns two or three. The list goes on and on.

And the Lightning are on it.

Late in the 2004 season, there was real debate about who should be the goaltender in the playoffs. Lightning coach John Tortorella leaned toward the upside of the uneven Nikolai Khabibulin. General manager Jay Feaster liked John Grahame.

Habby got the nod.

The rest is a big reason why there's a Stanley Cup banner at the Forum.

Khabibulin posted a 1.71 goals-against with five shutouts, including three in his team's first four playoff games.

"It has such a calming effect," Lightning winger Marty St. Louis said. "It's reassuring. It's everything. Habby set the tone. It lifted the entire (dressing) room."

And there was the save : closing minutes, Game 7, Stanley Cup finals, Lightning up 2-1, Calgary's Jordan Leopold snapped a shot at a wide-open Lightning net - and there, sliding across to get a pad on it, was Nik Khabibulin.

Dwayne Roloson doesn't talk about himself much. But he remembers one save from the 2006 playoffs more than the 572 others.

"We were down two games to none against San Jose and came back to Edmonton," Roloson said. "In Game 3, in double overtime, (Joe) Thornton and (Jonathan) Cheechoo came down. It was a backdoor play. Cheechoo one-timed it and I was able to get a glove on it."

Roloson's save is on YouTube. It's remarkable.

In the third overtime, Shawn Horcoff scored for the Oilers. Edmonton won the next three games and the series.

It began with one moment, one save, one goaltender.

"It's being there when you have to be," Roloson said.