LIGHTNING 4, THRASHERS 2: Vinny Lecavalier scores twice in Tampa Bay's rare win in Atlanta.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published February 26, 2004
[AP photo]
The Lightning's Vinny Lecavalier, left, celebrates his third-period goal with teammates Brad Lukowich and Ruslan Fedotenko.
ATLANTA - Vinny Lecavalier will be the first to tell you he has been a little shaky on breakaways of late. The backhand move that served him so well over the years just hasn't been working.
So the Lightning center decided to try something new Wednesday night: forehand instead of backhand.
It worked. Lecavalier's breakaway goal, his second score of the game, with 1:24 remaining in the third period was the winner in Tampa Bay's 4-2 victory over the Thrashers at Philips Arena.
"Usually I come back on the backhand," Lecavalier said. "I always did that last year. This time I faked back and kept going with it."
The Lightning's 17th road victory tied a franchise record, and the team finished its four-game road trip with six points at 2-0-0-2. It also pushed into high gear the race for playoff position in the East.
With 78 points, Southeast-leading Tampa Bay, No. 3 in the conference, is three behind the Senators with a game in hand and four behind the No. 1 Flyers with two games in hand.
The victory also was nice from an aesthetic standpoint. The Lightning had won just once in 12 games at Philips Arena and was 0-4-3-0 since its victory in March 2001.
Defenseman Cory Sarich called it "big for our confidence."
But Lecavalier said, "It doesn't matter who we play. We just want to get two points and get out of here. ... We've had some bad games here. Tonight we came out really hard from the get-go. We should be proud. We played hard tonight."
And got contributions galore.
Goalie Nikolai Khabibulin had 23 saves while playing his sharpest game since his 2-1 victory over the Flyers on Feb. 2. His third-period stops on Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk were game-turners.
Brad Richards scored his 18th, one more than last season, and had an assist. Ruslan Fedotenko had two assists, and Cory Stillman scored his 20th into an empty net with 26.2 seconds left.
But what really pleased coach John Tortorella was the way the team checked away from the puck, cut down on neutral-zone turnovers and improved its neutral-zone coverages.
Defensive deficiencies helped do in the Thrashers.
"We can't lose games in the last minute," Atlanta center Marc Savard said. "We work all year on defensive zone. That's where you've got to come up big."
Savard did just that with 7:27 left in the third with a power-play goal to tie it at 2. Richards had put the Lightning ahead 23 seconds into the period unassisted after Heatley lost the puck off his stick in the slot.
But Khabibulin played like his old self. The goalie, who had an unacceptable .878 save percentage in six previous starts, stoned Heatley with a brilliant glove save 9:03 into the third and stopped Kovalchuk from in close with 3:02 remaining.
And don't forget his dazzling glove save on Heatley from the slot with 4:12 left in the second.
"It was kind of weird," Khabibulin said. "I thought the warmups weren't that good because we didn't skate for a couple of days. But I got some early shots and felt decent after that."
"The key to winning hockey games is getting those saves in the third period," Tortorella said. "Kovalchuk is a foot and a half offsides before the chance, but Nik makes a great save on it, and he makes a save on Heatley. It's a fine line between winning and losing."
Martin St. Louis moved the line in Tampa Bay's favor when he won a battle for the puck along the boards at the Thrashers blue line and somehow saw Lecavalier streaking down the center. Lecavalier took the pass off his skate. The backhand fake got goalie Pasi Nurminen, who was otherwise outstanding while making 30 saves, moving the wrong way, and Lecavalier scored his 23rd on the glove side.
"It feels good," Lecavalier said. "I hadn't scored on a breakaway in a while. It's time I scored on one."
