Lightning: Lightning sluggish, then strong in rally

ATLANTA -- Tim Taylor really did not want to talk about it. Whatever he said was within the locker-room walls and, for the most part, that kind of stuff is sacred.

But the Lightning center got high marks from his teammates for standing up between the first and second periods of Friday night's game against the Thrashers and sending a loud, vocal message that shook them out of a malaise. With Taylor's words ringing in its collective ear, Tampa Bay turned a two-goal deficit into a tie at 2 at Philips Arena.

"It's something as a team you need to do, get something said," Taylor said. "I really don't want to say too much about it."

That was left to his teammates, who said Taylor did not kick trash cans or throw water bottles. He did not pull any punches either.

"He raised his voice, and for us it needed to be done," left wing Vinny Prospal said. "We needed a kick in the butt."

"It was a very leadership move, a veteran move," goaltender John Grahame said. "You have to realize you can't wait. We have to do it now. We don't want to wait until there are five games left in the season, and you don't want to worry about somebody else helping us."

After a first period in which Dany Heatley and Slava Kozlov scored for Atlanta, the Lightning helped itself.

Prospal's power-play goal 15:49 into the second period made it 2-1. Nikita Alexeev tied it at 6:16 of the third.

Grahame, making his first start since being pulled Feb. 4 against the Capitals, likely earned another start tonight against his former team by making 33 saves, including 13 in the first period, when the Thrashers outshot Tampa Bay 15-4.

Okay, so Kozlov's goal deflected in off Grahame's stick after Kozlov shot from practically behind the Lightning net. But Grahame also made a dazzling glove save on Ilya Kovalchuk's wrist shot from the slot and is 5-2-0 in eight games since being acquired from Boston.

The Lightning, with 58 points, is within one point of the Canadiens for the eighth playoff spot in the East and six points of the first-place Capitals in the Southeast. It has two games in hand on both.

"I don't question the team's willingness to battle," coach John Tortorella said. "I've seen it too often this year."

Still, it is inexplicable, even to the Lightning players, how often they are flat in the first period. That was double trouble against an Atlanta team that did not want to make the same mistakes it did Wednesday when it allowed five first-period goals to Washington and lost 5-1.

"We came out firing," center Marc Savard said. "We were working hard, but we have to learn to play 60 minutes. That second period hurt us."

That was when the Lightning finally got it in gear. It outshot the Thrashers 26-20 the rest of the way and got both goals through effort and desperation.

Prospal scored after he received a puck from Brad Richards, whose original pass at the blue line was disrupted by Tony Hrkac. But Richards hustled after it and whacked at it in to keep it in the offensive zone.

The puck bounced over the defense right to Prospal, who deked Nurminen and got his 12th goal. Alexeev drove hard to the net after getting the puck from Vinny Lecavalier and got the puck between Nurminen's legs for his second goal.

And had Nurminen not made notable overtime saves on defensemen Darren Rumble with 1:03 remaining and Dan Boyle with 21.6 seconds left, the Lightning is a winner.

And the first period is an even fuzzier memory.

"We were asleep," Alexeev said. "We needed a wakeup call."

"It's good to get a point like that," Richards said. "It's not good to put ourselves in a hole in the first place. We just have to realize from warmups on, we have to be ready."

Just like Taylor said.