Trip ends on a downer

WINGS 3, LIGHTNING 2: Early mistakes put Detroit up 2-0, and goalie Curtis Joseph takes over from there.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 6, 2003

DETROIT -- What is the measure of success? For the Lightning, it is becoming a moving target.

Tampa Bay finished a three-game road trip with two victories and four of a possible six points. Thumbs up by any standard, right? But Thursday's 3-2 loss to the Red Wings in front of 20,058 at Joe Louis Arena left the team wanting more.

Especially considering that, as coach John Tortorella said, "I thought we outplayed one of the better teams in the league after the first few minutes."

It was those first few minutes, though -- the first nine to be exact -- that did in Tampa Bay. Two mistakes in the defensive zone led to two Detroit goals and a 2-0 lead, and outstanding goaltending by Curtis Joseph kept Tampa Bay from getting out of the hole.

The Lightning, which outshot Detroit 35-22, pulled to 2-1 on Dan Boyle's power-play goal early in the second period. And Vinny Prospal scored on a six-on-four power play (Tampa Bay pulled goalie John Grahame to get an extra skater) with 35 seconds left to finish the scoring.

But it wasn't enough to overcome the defending Stanley Cup champions, who went ahead 3-1 on Brendan Shanahan's 26th goal with 2:08 remaining, and leaned heavily on Joseph, who made 33 saves.

The win was Detroit's seventh in a row and 10th in 11 games. It also snapped Tampa Bay's four-game win streak, kept it two points behind the first-place Capitals in the Southeast and kept it from finishing with a bang a road trip that began with victories against the Senators and Islanders.

"Joseph was the difference," Tortorella said. "I thought we played very well. We just couldn't solve (Joseph)."

"I thought we had a tremendous first period, and then Curtis Joseph took over," Red Wings coach Dave Lewis said. "He was the difference in the game."

Before we get there, however, we must get through those first nine minutes.

Pavel Kubina's inability to clear the puck from the defensive zone started a sequence that led to Nicklas Lidstrom's power-play goal at 4:51. Andre Roy's turnover off his skate to Igor Larionov led to Mathieu Dandenault's goal at 9:02.

Roy, who hustled to recover and almost picked off a pass to break up the sequence, was benched for the rest of the game.

"I'm not the boss," said Roy, who had 2:04 of ice time on five shifts. "I can't do anything. It's his decision. It (stinks), but I have to live with it."

"I have to get it out," Kubina said of the puck.

The plays were not made in a vacuum. Pavel Datsyuk did a good job keeping Kubina's clearing attempt in the zone. And Larionov and Luc Robitaille passed effectively back and forth before Dandenault's slap shot beat Grahame.

Still, Tortorella said, "A couple of guys weren't ready to play at the beginning, and it cost us tremendously. And we're fighting an uphill battle."

And that is where Joseph comes in. The goalie, who has won five consecutive starts, was stellar on a 1:06 five-on-three, which, began with 7:02 left in the second period, and the subsequent 54-second five-on four.

Joseph stopped Andreychuk three times, once on a tip try that went off the goalie's mask.

"He's the type of goaltender who is going to win games by himself," Andreychuk said. "He's a guy who you're going to have to put on him as many shots as you can because he's going to stop most of them.

"During the five-on-three, he made three or four really good saves. That could have been the difference in the game."

The Lightning took away some of its own attack time in the third period. Richards received a four-minute high-sticking penalty at 6:47, when he caught Dmitri Bykov with an inadvertent stick near the left eye. Bykov left the game and received multiple stitches on his eyelid and the bridge of his nose.

Grahame was called for roughing at 10:29.

"Any three-game road trip that you come away with four of six points you're happy about it," Tortorella said. "But we still need to get more points. That's your goal right now. I thought we had a chance (Wednesday), but we couldn't get through to the goalie to finish it."