Dingman out two games for high-sticking incident

Left wing Chris Dingman was suspended by the NHL on Wednesday for two games for a high-sticking incident with Carolina's Jesse Boulerice during Saturday's 5-1 victory over the Hurricanes.

Dingman will miss Friday's game against the Thrashers at the St. Pete Times Forum and Saturday's at Pittsburgh. He can return Monday against the Rangers in New York.

"Well, obviously you don't want to be suspended and you don't want to miss any games," Dingman said. "They don't tell me what the process is and the determining factor, but I guess it's a match penalty and you have to get at least one (game)."

The incident occurred with 4:26 remaining in the third period. Dingman received a five-minute high-sticking penalty and a match penalty. Boulerice was given two minutes for high-sticking.

Dingman said he was retaliating after Boulerice whacked him twice in the head with his stick. Coach John Tortorella said video backs the contention and said Dingman would not have taken such action without being provoked. The evidence apparently was not clear enough for the league, which did not suspend Boulerice but fined him $1,000.

"I guess you can call it unfair," Dingman said. "But you can't really worry about what he's doing. You just have to worry about what we're doing."

The NHL would not comment, and all general manager Jay Feaster would say was, "The Tampa Bay hockey club has no comment to make on the decision other than it's two games and we will serve them, and Dinger will get ready for the Rangers."

MODIN RETURNS: Dingman's suspension will help get Fredrik Modin back in the lineup. The left wing missed the first two games with a strained groin. But with each of the four lines playing well, Modin, who is well enough to return, might have been a healthy scratch against the Thrashers.

Instead, he likely will take Dingman's spot on a line with center Alexander Svitov and Sheldon Keefe. He also might get power-play time.

"Dingman's suspension created an opening for Fredrik Modin, who might not have had the opportunity otherwise," Feaster said. Modin was slotted before the season to play with center Brad Richards and right wing Martin St. Louis. The line has had great success in the past. But Modin's injury forced Tortorella to shuffle his top two offensive lines, and those lines clicked.

Richards centered for Vinny Prospal and Ben Clymer against the Hurricanes. Vinny Lecavalier centered for St. Louis and Ruslan Fedotenko. That line was on the ice for Tampa Bay's two even-strength goals and a power-play goal.

"We're trying to make this thing a merit system, and after two games, no one merited coming out of the lineup," Feaster said.

TOUGH GAME: On paper, it appears a slam dunk. Tampa Bay outscored the Thrashers 14-1 in two preseason games and is 5-1-1 against them at the St. Pete Times Forum. It is a game the Lightning expects to win. But Tortorella does not want to take any chances.

"That's a dangerous hockey team," he said. "They're a much better hockey team. We won two games, and we played well. But this team cannot take a second off as far as mental preparation against Atlanta. We're not good enough to think we can look by anybody."

Lightning players need only look at their 1-5-2 record in Atlanta.

"Atlanta is one of those teams we've had trouble with in the past for no other reason than we were not prepared mentally and didn't come out as hard as we should," defenseman Jassen Cullimore said. "Hopefully, those days are behind us."

"This is another test for us as far as our mental preparation," Tortorella said. "It's not going to be tough to remind them. We just hope it seeps in."