THRASHERS 2, LIGHTNING 1: Atlanta erases a 1-0 deficit to take the game and the Southeast Division lead.
By BRANT JAMES
Published November 30, 2003
ATLANTA - If the first pangs of worry are beginning to creep in, no one is letting on.
Maybe it's the nature of a long season. Maybe the slate is leveling for breaks the Lightning used to win seven of its first eight games.
The fact of the season's first lull is plain, however. The Lightning has scored two or fewer in five consecutive games and has one goal from a forward in its past five. And in a 2-1 loss to the Thrashers Saturday at Philips Arena, it squandered a lead by allowing two goals in the third period for the second straight night.
"Anything can happen," defenseman Cory Sarich said. "This could happen again. We'll sure try like heck to make sure it doesn't. But we got a lot of breaks early on and people tend to forget those. Now they're not going in our direction."
It would be alarmist to say the team's new direction is down, though the Thrashers (12-9-3-1) slipped one point ahead of the Lightning (11-4-4-1) for first place in the Southeast Division. Atlanta has played five more games, and Tampa Bay has lost only two of its past seven as it continues its first protracted road swing - seven of its next 10 are away from the St. Pete Times Forum - Tuesday in Montreal.
Lightning coach John Tortorella continues to seek tangible solutions, tweaking his team in hopes of stoking the "desperation barometer" until it starts generating its own luck again.
"We're concerned about a lot of things, but to hold a team like (Atlanta) to 20 shots and eight or nine scoring chances you feel like you have a good chance to win," Tortorella said. "But we're not scoring the big goals.
"Bottom line is, your gamebreakers need to be gamebreakers."
That includes center Vinny Lecavalier, who played only 2:19 of the third period. The team's all-time goals leader was conspicuous by his absence in an empty-net situation at the end.
"In the third period I was going with the guys who were pushing," Tortorella said.
J.P. Vigier scored the winner on the type of goal the Lightning has not produced lately. He parked in front of goaltender John Grahame on the power play with 4:57 left and deflected a Frantisek Kaberle shot backward for his fourth of the season.
Tampa Bay did many things right through the first two periods, including maintaining a pitched physical presence it rediscovered in Friday's 2-2 tie against St. Louis. Grahame was at times sparkling in his 100th NHL game, but was undone on the winner, in part because the Lightning had earned a two-minute penalty for having too many men on the ice. Tampa Bay also was 0-for-6 on the power play, including 1:42 of a five-on-three in the first period.
"There's a fine line between winning and losing in this league," Tortorella said.
Slava Kozlov tied the score at 4:48 of the third when Ilya Kovalchuk, the league's leading goal-scorer with 17, drew the Lightning defense toward the net, then dropped a pass Kozlov fired through a screen.
Boyle had no goals in 31 games before Friday but notched his second of the season at 11:23 of the first when he took a pass from Martin St. Louis, skated into the slot and wristed a shot past goaltender Pasi Nurminen.
Physical intensity increased in the second after Kovalchuk vehemently argued that he had been slashed in the lip while attempting to chase a puck into the Lightning end. Lightning wing Andre Roy and Atlanta's Francis Lessard could barely wait for the ensuing faceoff to settle the issue; Lessard's right eye got the worst of the exchange and each player earned a five-minute major for fighting.
Nurminen turned away several dangerous chances in the final three minutes, blocking down a blast from the left by Alexander Svitov, them smothering the puck as Ruslan Fedotenko lunged forward for the tip. He finished with 27 saves.
