LIGHTNING 3, PANTHERS 2: First win this season vs. rival Florida and goalie Luongo stretches latest hot streak to 9-1-1.
By TOM JONES
Published February 15, 2004
[Times photo: Dirk Shadd]
Lightning goaltender John Grahame kept an eye on the puck against the Panthers.
TAMPA - The Lightning is practically a lock to win the Southeast Division and make its second straight showing in the Stanley Cup playoffs. That's all it really cares about and all that really matters.
But even though it is in the midst of one of the hottest stretches in team history, there was one item left to cross off on the Lightning's checklist to make this regular season complete.
Beat those Florida Panthers, a team that badgers the Lightning and its fans as no other regardless of the standings.
Check it off: The Lightning finally ended Florida and goaltender Robert Luongo's hex against it with a 3-2 victory Saturday before an announced 18,888 at the St. Pete Times Forum.
Yeah, sure, ho-hum, the players tried to slough off the victory.
"Just another two points," right wing Martin St. Louis said.
"We don't care who we play," center Vinny Lecavalier said, "every night we want to win."
But let's be honest, the Lightning wanted this one. Bad.
Forget for a moment that the Lightning increased its lead in the Southeast to 16 points over the Panthers, pretty much burying Florida's hopes in the division. Or that it improved to 9-1-1 in the past 11 games and 14-2-1-2 since Jan. 8.
This game carried a little extra juice for the Lightning because it is, after all, Lightning-Panthers, a rivalry with 11 years of nasty baggage before the added spice of this season. Now behind the Panthers bench is former Lightning assistant John Torchetti and former Lightning coach Steve Ludzik, while former Lightning GM Rick Dudley is the boss in Florida.
Then consider the Lightning was winless (0-2-1) this season against its cross-state rival.
"It's a team that - I don't want to call it a rivalry. I still think you need to play some games in the playoffs before you call it a rivalry - but it's a team that we haven't been able to beat for one reason or another," Lightning coach John Tortorella said.
The reason? Luongo, who stopped 90 of 93 shots in the past two meetings, including a remarkable 50-save performance in a 2-1 Florida victory last month.
"He has given us trouble in the past," St. Louis said.
Trouble? More like fits.
But the Lightning ended Luongo's mastery with goals by Lecavalier, St. Louis and Cory Sarich.
Lecavalier's goal at 13:06 of the first opened the scoring and gave the sixth-year professional 20 goals for the fifth consecutive season.
"I'm not satisfied with 20, obviously," Lecavalier said. "But at this point of the season with the month of December I had (three goals in 15 games), it's nice."
Meantime, St. Louis' league-leading seventh short-handed goal - his 14th short-handed goal with the Lightning to tie the franchise record set by Rob Zamuner - was a dagger. It extended Tampa Bay's lead to 3-1 late in the second period and took some steam out of Tortorella's postgame anger.
Tortorella was riled because St. Louis' goal came while Tampa Bay was serving its second too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty of the period. It wasn't a fluke. The Lightning has been nabbed 15 times for having too many men, second in the NHL to Calgary's 16.
"It's just beyond belief how many too-many-men-on-the-ice penalties we take," Tortorella said. "We have to be going for the world record. It's just ridiculous, and it has to stop. Those are the ones you don't kill off, especially two in one game, and we end up scoring a short-handed goal. That's a huge goal. It should be in our net."
But other than that and a late Florida charge that cut the lead to 3-2 and made for a tense final five minutes, the Lightning stayed hot and held on behind goalie John Grahame's 29 saves.
"We found a way to get it done," said Tortorella, who had high praise for the Panthers and Torchetti.
Considering the opponent, getting it done was more than good enough for the Lightning.
