Lightning: Spirit of St. Louis

Spirit of St. Louis

Martin St. Louis scores twice, including once short-handed during the second period, to help the Lightning win its second in a row in Washington and even the series at 2.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Come on, admit it. After the Lightning lost the first two games of the East quarterfinals at home, you figured the season was just about over.

It's okay, you weren't alone. That continuous thumping you heard was fans and media jumping off the bandwagon. The players, though, stuck around for the ride.

"We don't really care what other people think," center Vinny Lecavalier said. "When you're down two to nothing, people expect you to lose. We didn't listen to that."

Well, listen to this. With a 3-1 victory against the Capitals on Wednesday at the MCI Center, the Lightning tied the best-of-seven series at two with Friday's Game 5 at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Martin St. Louis continued to emerge from a post-All Star Game slump with two goals, including a short-handed winner that broke a 1-1 tie with 2:20 left in the second period. Lecavalier's goal 1:24 into the third period gave both players three goals in the past two games.

And how about Dave Andreychuk?

The captain, 39, played 19:02, won nine of 14 faceoffs and made the game's biggest play when he stole the puck from Kip Miller and led a two-on-one capped by St. Louis' winner.

"The resiliency that we've had all year long is that when our backs have been against a wall, we've responded. We've played in big games," Andreychuk said. "(Wednesday), we showed a lot of discipline. That's something we didn't do in Games 1 and 2."

Now if Tampa Bay can only get Nikolai Khabibulin back in form. The goalie was solid in the third period and made 22 saves overall. But he was shaky in the first two periods and had to come up huge on Jaromir Jagr in the second after he fumbled the puck at the side of the net.

"This one is real disappointing," Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig said. "We had our opportunities. It's now a best of three, and we can't be the team that plays like a deer caught in the headlights. We have to get back to the team that we were down in Tampa. We've got to be the resilient team now and raise our level."

It apparently helps to be booed unmercifully before and during the game.

The visiting team has not only won each game, it has scored first.

Coach John Tortorella said he wanted to start the series on the road so his players could get a feel for the postseason without the pressure of home-ice expectations.

"It's one of the screwiest sports as far as home ice," Tortorella said. "No one wants it. But that's our situation now. A big plus for us is that we've played four games, and we're beginning to understand it. I think our composure was way better (Wednesday). We're learning our lessons as we go through it, and hopefully, we can get something done in the next game."

Home ice, road ice. Lecavalier said it doesn't matter.

"It's not playing in Tampa that made us nervous," he said. "It was just the first two games. We want to play the same way. We need to work just as hard."

As hard as Andreychuk, whose defensive work sparked St. Louis' second goal, which came 2:01 after Peter Bondra's tip-in tied the game at 1.

As hard as St. Louis, whose first goal gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead 11:55 into the period and featured stick-handling so sweet, Capitals defenseman Brendan Witt is still swiping at a puck that seemed to be on a string.

That play began when defensemen Stan Neckar and Cory Sarich showed patience in the defensive zone handling the puck before Sarich sprung St. Louis with a pass.

Defenseman Pavel Kubina continued his good work on Jagr, was plus-2 and played a team-high 23:34.

"What we've done is we've given ourselves a lot better chance of winning the series," Andreychuk said. "We haven't played very well at home this series, so we've got to be ready to go. We've got home ice back again. We've got to take advantage of it."