Slow starts hurt as Lightning nears end

'CANES 4, LIGHTNING 2: Tampa Bay can't mount a rally after giving up two first-period goals.

By JOANNE KORTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 11, 2002

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Lightning is making a habit of falling behind early.

A bad habit.

"It's happened quite a bit, not just early goals but early bad goals," coach John Tortorella said. "You can only come back so many times, especially on the road."

The Lightning gave up three special-teams goals, two on power plays and one short-handed, in a 4-2 loss to Carolina before an announced 18,210 at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.

The Hurricanes clinched the Southeast Division and home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs as the third seed in the East. The Lightning, eliminated more than a week ago, took another sullen step closer to a long offseason.

Tampa Bay rallied for a tie at 2 Tuesday in Boston but was unable to pull off back-to-back comebacks. Against Carolina, playing its final regular-season home game, the Lightning never led.

Rod Brind'Amour, Ron Francis, Jeff O'Neill and Bates Battaglia scored for Carolina. Brad Richards and Shane Willis had goals for the Lightning, and Dan Boyle had two assists.

Brind'Amour's short-handed goal was the start of a special-teams bonanza for the Hurricanes. The power play, which struggled early in the season, was 2-for-4 and has converted 11 of 49 in the Hurricanes' past 10 games. Tampa Bay's normally reliable road penalty kill, ranked fourth in the league at 87.1 percent, struggled, and its power play was 0-for-3.

"We had a chance to get it out of our zone on both power-play goals scored against us, and we didn't," Dave Andreychuk said. "Usually that comes back to slap you in the face, and it did. They made good plays, made good shots, but still we had a chance to get it out."

Carolina took a 1-0 lead on careless play by the Lightning. The Hurricanes iced it during a penalty kill, and Tampa Bay goaltender Dieter Kochan went to the corner to play it. The puck took an awkward bounce off Kochan's stick to the middle of the ice, where Brind'Amour put it into the open net for an easy goal 10:25 into the first period.

"The puck had so much spin on it when it came down, it hit my stick and kind of shot off," said Kochan, auditioning to become Nikolai Khabibulin's backup next season. "I have to have a different angle on my stick, but it's easy to say now."

Tortorella said Kochan had no business playing the puck.

"He needs to do anything except what he did," Tortorella said. "He doesn't need to go out that far. It's just a dump-in, and our defenseman is coming back. Dieter doesn't need to be there."

"It was a break, for sure," Carolina coach Paul Maurice said.

Tampa Bay tied it at 1 on Richards' 20th goal of the season at 14:07. Richards flipped a backhand toward the net, hoping to create a chance for Ben Clymer in front of the net. The shot hit Francis' skate and skipped past goalie Arturs Irbe. Boyle and Clymer got assists.

The goal tied Richards with Andreychuk for the team lead, and his 62nd point matched his rookie total of last season.

Carolina regained the lead on a power play. Francis beat Kochan with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle for his 27th of the season at 18:38.

After a scoreless second period, Carolina's power play struck again on a nice passing play by Sean Hill and Josef Vasicek to O'Neill, who put it in off the post at 10:56.

Twenty four seconds later, Kochan was screened on Battaglia's goal.

Willis, traded from Carolina to Tampa Bay on March 5, scored his 10th of the season at 14:04.

"I haven't been that nervous since my first game in the NHL," said Willis, playing at Carolina for the first time since the trade. "The jitterbugs went away about halfway through the game, but by that point we were down two or three goals."

First period -- 1, Carolina, Brind'Amour 23, 10:25 (sh). 2, Tampa Bay, Richards 20 (Boyle, Clymer), 14:07. 3, Carolina, Francis 27 (Kapanen, Hill), 18:38 (pp). Penalties -- Prospal, TB (tripping), 5:25; Malik, Car (ob.-hooking), 8:45; Kubina, TB (cross-checking), 17:07.

Second period -- None. Penalties -- Malik, Car (roughing), 6:01; Willis, TB (holding stick), 6:01; O'Neill, Car (tripping), 7:15; Sarich, TB (roughing), 12:46; O'Neill, Car (cross-checking), 16:43; Hill, Car (roughing), 16:43; Sarich, TB (cross-checking), 16:43; Cullimore, TB (roughing), 16:43; Hill, Car (cross-checking), 19:41.

Third period -- 4, Carolina, O'Neill 34 (Vasicek, Hill), 10:32 (pp). 5, Carolina, Battaglia 21 (Brind'Amour, Ward), 10:56. 6, Tampa Bay, Willis 10 (Lecavalier, Boyle), 14:04. Penalty -- Ledyard, TB (hooking), 9:34.

Shots on goal -- Tampa Bay 8-12-10-30. Carolina 10-11-5-26. Power-play opportunities -- Tampa Bay 0 of 3; Carolina 2 of 4. Goalies -- Tampa Bay, Kochan 0-3-1 (26 shots-22 saves). Carolina, Irbe 20-19-10 (30-28). Attendance -- 18,210 (18,730). Referees -Brad Watson, Chris Rooney. Linesmen -- Dan McCourt, Brad Kovachik.

UP NEXT: Lightning vs. Islanders, 7:30 Friday, Ice Palace, Tampa.

TV/RADIO: Sunshine, WDAE-AM 620.