Lightning: From huge splash to huge splat

From huge splash to huge splat

THRASHERS 3, LIGHTNING 2 (OT): Two days after beating a top team, Tampa Bay loses to one of the NHL's worst.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO, Times Staff Writer

TAMPA -- Lightning left wing Dave Andreychuk chuckled as he answered, a little bit from frustration, a little bit from resignation.

How, he was asked, could Tampa Bay play its best game of the season Tuesday to beat defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit 1-0 only to fall flat Thursday in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Thrashers?

"It doesn't amaze me. I've seen it happen year after year," he said. "We basically got outworked. It's just one of those unexplainables." There are no easy games."

Atlanta proved it in front of a season-low 12,622 at the St. Pete Times Forum as Ilya Kovalchuk's second goal with 15.2 seconds left sent the Lightning to the locker room with hanging heads.

Tampa Bay got a point for the regulation tie and increased its lead in the Southeast Division to two. But the frustration and emotion kindled by a game in which the Lightning was not only outworked, but dominated in the first two periods by a team that entered with a league-worst 26 points and had won just three of its previous 17 games was palpable.

Coach John Tortorella, the steam coming from his ears notwithstanding, said he was "giddy" to get the point considering the Lightning trailed 2-0 after two periods after being outshot 27-19.

Center Tim Taylor marveled at how the team let two days of warnings against a letdown go in one ear and out the other.

"We looked real sleepy, and it cost us," he said. "The coach came in and set the tone and tried to get us prepared. We kept saying we were ready to play. But we weren't ready mentally to play that hockey game.

"I don't want to take anything away from them because they're getting better. They battled. But we have to remember, we're the team in the playoff race. We're the ones who need the points. If we want to get to (the playoffs), we need that extra point. We needed the win and we didn't get it done."

Tampa Bay came close. Vinny Lecavalier and Andreychuk scored power-play goals at 1:10 and 16:46 of the third period to tie the score. Lecavalier had a clean shot at Byron Dafoe 1:04 into overtime but could not find the five-hole.

Kovalchuk, on the other hand, was deadly, and there was no blame for Nikolai Khabibulin, who was outstanding and made 36 saves.

Kovalchuk's mesmerizing wrist shot gave the Thrashers a 1-0 lead 9:21 into the game. The puck so quickly deflected off the inside of the goal post and bounced in and out of the net, it needed to be verified by video replay.

The winner, which pushed Atlanta ahead of Buffalo in the league standings, was an equally quality shot that beat Khabibulin low. It was his 24th goal, 18th on the road.

"The kid's money when he's anywhere around the net," said Dafoe, who made 30 saves to break an eight-game winless streak. "He had a big night for us."

"Everybody feels good," Kovalchuk, 19, said. "Especially I feel good. I scored a goal and won the game. That's all we need."

Not everything for Tampa Bay was gloom and doom. Andreychuk's goal was his 605th and extended his NHL record for power-play goals to 254. He had a game-high seven shots, and his line with Taylor and Chris Dingman was the team's best. Pavel Kubina, who played 26:25, and Stan Neckar (25:27) had good games on defense. And Vinny Prospal had two assists.

And as Andreychuk said, "We got a point. Maybe we didn't deserve a point, but we got a point."

Still, it was what happened before the game, or didn't as far as mental preparation, that, apparently, was most important.

Tortorella said it is not a point on which he will harp.

"If I have to say something to this club about (Thursday's) game, then we really have problems," he said. "So nothing has to be said. I don't even want to approach that."

But he wasn't laughing about it either.