Lightning lights the lamp a lot

LIGHTNING 8, THRASHERS 5: Tampa Bay erases a two-goal deficit and then some, tying a team mark for goals in a game.

By JOANNE KORTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 19, 2002

TAMPA -- As statements go, this one was not quite worthy of an exclamation point.

It was too ugly.

But Tampa Bay's 8-5 come-from-behind win against the lowly Thrashers before an announced 14,974 Friday at the St. Pete Times Forum was a resolute step toward proving on the ice what it has been insisting for weeks.

Maybe this is a new Lightning.

[Times photo: Dirk Shadd] Tim Taylor, left, after his second goal and the team's eighth. Martin St. Louis, right, assisted.

"We don't want any stigma of being the Tampa Bay Lightning from the past," veteran center Tim Taylor said. "We're a different team. We're trying to change that mind-set in our fans and within ourselves to make sure people believe in us, because we believe in ourselves."

For the first time, Tampa Bay is 3-0.

After talking all week about the importance of being prepared, Tampa Bay spotted winless Atlanta two early goals. But rather than fall back on old excuses, the Lightning exploded for four goals in the second, two by Vinny Lecavalier.

Taylor also had two goals and Dan Boyle, Vinny Prospal, Ruslan Fedotenko and Martin St. Louis one each as the Lightning tied the franchise record for goals, set in an 8-2 victory against Atlanta on Nov. 22, 2000. Fourteen of 18 skaters scored a point and five had multiple points.

All-Star goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin surrendered five goals, and no one cared.

Of course, Tampa Bay's rally was made possible by a horrific start. After outscoring the Thrashers 14-1 in two preseason games, the Lightning knew it could not afford to start slowly against the fourth-year team but did anyway. Playing for the first time in six days, the Lightning looked as if it were skating through molasses in the first period. The Thrashers scored two goals in their first three shots -- one each by Stefan Patrick and Shawn McEachern -- for a 2-0 lead 3 minutes, 18 seconds into the game.

Trailing 3-1, the Lightning was still slogging along midway through the second when Lecavalier energized the building with two goals in 76 seconds, tying the score at 3 with an acrobatic goal sure to make all the highlight shows.

Chasing a blue-line feed from Fedotenko, Lecavalier dived at the puck, tipping it with his stick to keep goaltender Pasi Nurminen from clearing it. Sprawled on his stomach, feet in the air, Lecavalier poked the puck over Nurminen's shoulder, giving the Lightning a fresh start 9:20 into the period.

"I was skating as fast as I could and I knew the only way I could score was to poke-check and go high," said Lecavalier, who has three goals this season, nine in his past 11 games dating to last season. "He happened to poke-check at the same time, so it was kind of a lucky thing, but everything happened like I planned."

The floodgates opened.

Prospal whipped his own rebound past Nurminen in the final second of a five-on-three power play 14:16 into the second. Taylor snapped a 19-game scoreless streak at 17:05, giving the Lightning four goals in 9:01 for a 5-3 lead. Nurminen left the game.

"Playing with the lead has really been a problem so far," Atlanta's Stefan said. "We scored enough goals to win, but we really have to tighten up defensively in order to win games."

In a willy-nilly third period the Lightning added three goals, including the first short-handed of the season by St. Louis. Atlanta got goals from super sophomores Ilya Kovalchuk and Dany Heatley, but never cut the lead to one.

With 17 goals in three games, the Lightning matched the franchise best for a three-game span set Nov. 7-11, 1992, its inaugural season. It has scored at least four goals in three consecutive games for the first time since February 1998. And it has twice scored five goals, a feat it accomplished only four times last season.

That firepower could come in handy tonight, when Tampa Bay starts a three-game road trip against Pittsburgh and prolific scorer Mario Lemeiux.

So, too, could Friday night's lesson.

"It's good that we can come back, but I don't think we can count on that all the time, especially on the road," Taylor said. "We need to be prepared for every game. ... If we start off slow (tonight), Mario's going to have five goals by himself."

That's some statement.

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