A roaring, soaring night

LIGHTNING 4, AVS 3: A full house cheers a four-goal comeback vs. the league's hottest team.

[Times photo: Dan McDuffie] Fredrik Modin, center, celebrates after his goal puts the Lightning ahead with 1:31 left.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 8, 2003

TAMPA -- Lightning center Brad Richards said he never had heard anything like it.

Tampa Bay had just pulled off a dramatic 4-3 victory over the Avalanche Friday night at the St. Pete Times Forum, and the sellout crowd of 20,254 was in full, frenzied voice.

"I could hardly hear myself think," Richards said. "I couldn't even hear the buzzer."

But there was no way to miss the buzz.

The music in the locker room was blasting. General manager Jay Feaster gave a short, rousing speech. Center Tim Taylor called it a "feather in our cap."

And coach John Tortorella, who distributes praise the way you get water from a kinked hose, gave the equivalent of a group hug.

"The guys deserve a lot of credit, and you know I don't give out too much," he said. "I'm very careful with how we handle wins so they don't get 10 feet tall, but they should feel pretty damn good about themselves."

The Lightning should feel good because it beat a team that came in 16-1-2-2 in its previous 21.

It overcame a 3-0 first-period deficit, and a 3-2 deficit entering the third against a team that was 23-0-5-2 when leading after two. And it did it in its first game after a rugged three-game road trip that garnered four points but ended on a downer when Tampa Bay outplayed Detroit but lost 3-2.

"That's a great hockey team we played," Feaster said of Colorado. "That's a team that could easily win the Stanley Cup. We didn't quit and we got the ultimate reward tonight."

The reward came on Fredrik Modin's backhander through the legs of goalie David Aebischer with 91 seconds left. Assists went to Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis.

Dave Andreychuk tied the score with a wraparound, power-play goal with 10:05 left. It was his 17th goal and 610th of his career, tying Bobby Hull for 11th all-time.

And how about this: The Lightning's 75 points are one behind the first-place Capitals in the Southeast with a game in hand, and are four points behind the Maple Leafs for fifth in the East.

"They played a great game," Avalanche coach Tony Granato said. "When you're playing a team as desperate as they were from the drop of the puck, give them credit, they played a hell of a hockey game."

It was an uphill battle. The Avalanche got goals in 14 seconds from Rob Blake and Alex Tanguay to take a 2-0 lead 3:53 in. Milan Hejduk made it 3-0 at 12:49.

The Lightning, tied with the Stars with a league-high 18 points when trailing after two periods, did not panic, picked up the defense and created some pressure.

When Dan Boyle scored at 3:36 of the second, the Lightning's engine, and the crowd's, went into high gear.

Ruslan Fedotenko's power-play goal made it 3-2 at 15:57. Defenseman Pavel Kubina carried the puck down the left and beyond the goal line before finding Fedotenko in front of the net.

A penalty kill of a 17-second five-on-three and the 1:43 five-on-four that followed and carried into the third period was crucial.

The Lightning, 8-2-2 in its past 12, outshot Colorado 35-25, including 14-6 in the third period. Khabibulin, 7-0-1 in eight starts, was sharp in the final two periods. Modin's goal, his 16th, came off Richards' pass from behind the net.

"Tonight's as close to a playoff game as we've had all season," Modin said.

Tortorella considered that.

"The building is full and we come back and the atmosphere in the building makes you think of what can be," he said. "But you still have to go through the steps to get to 'can be."'

One of those steps is Sunday against the Sabres, statistically one of the league's worst teams, but a team that stung the Lightning 4-1 two weeks ago.

"You need to make that game stick against Buffalo," Tortorella said.

Or the Lightning might never hear the end of it.