LIGHTNING 4, PANTHERS 3: Coupled with a Boston tie, Tampa Bay secures the top seed in the East.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published April 2, 2004
TAMPA - You didn't have to ask Lightning president Ron Campbell how he felt Thursday night. The huge smile on his face gave it away.
You didn't have to ask defenseman Brad Lukowich twice what he was thinking. The first question brought it all tumbling out.
That's what happens when you are No. 1, and that is where Tampa Bay finds itself.
The Lightning's 4-3 victory over the Panthers at the St. Pete Times Forum coupled with the Bruins' 3-3 tie with the Capitals clinched the top seed in the East and home ice through the first three rounds of the playoffs.
"It's something that no one ever thought we could do," Lukowich said. "To say, "Yeah, we did it,' and to make all those doubters believe in us feels great."
"It's spectacular," Campbell said. "Who would have thunk it?"
How appropriate, then, that Martin St. Louis should have the leading role. The right wing, who almost four years ago was as unlikely a star as Tampa Bay was an elite team, scored twice in the third period, once short-handed, and got the winner, his team-record seventh, with 2:20 remaining.
It was St. Louis' first goals in seven games and gave him, with one game remaining, a team-high 37 and a league-high 93 points. That's seven ahead of Colorado's Joe Sakic, who has three games left.
No wonder Lukowich was chanting, literally, that St. Louis, with league highs of eight short-handed goals and 11 short-handed points, should be league MVP.
"He's the man," Lukowich said. "He was awesome."
There were other notables. Cory Stillman had three assists, including a nice play that kept the puck in the offensive zone and led to St. Louis' winning goal.
Brad Richards scored his 26th goal and had an assist. Fredrik Modin scored his 29th and goalie John Grahame made 29 saves despite having his left leg wrapped around the post in the second period in a collision with Florida defenseman Jay Bouwmeester. Grahame stayed down briefly but stayed in the game.
One downer. The Red Wings' 3-2 victory over the Blues clinched the Presidents' Trophy with 109 points, one more than Tampa Bay can get if it wins Saturday against Atlanta.
The Bruins, with two games remaining, could still match the Lightning's 106 points, but Tampa Bay holds all the tiebreakers. Tampa Bay's first-round opponent could be the Islanders, Canadiens or Sabres.
"Good for them," coach John Tortorella said of his players. "You win your division and now you win your conference (in the regular season). Two or three years ago who would have thought that. And the credit goes to the guys in the locker room. They stayed together and accomplished a couple of nice things here. Now that's done with. Now it's on to bigger and better things."
"Bottom line, we didn't play a 60-minute game," Panthers coach John Torchetti said. "They played 60 minutes."
They played 20, anyway. Florida led 2-1 after two periods and had a 25-15 shot advantage. Notable because the Panthers had allowed an average 34.6 shots and a league-high 2,796.
"We know we're not as juiced as we are against a team like Ottawa," Tortorella said. "It's a tough thing when you go through a grind, and you're not as on edge when you get involved in a grind like this. But still I don't think we weren't working hard enough."
Until the third period in which the Lightning scored three times. Modin tied the score at 2, and St. Louis' short-handed goal made it 3-2. St. Louis stripped the puck from defenseman Lyle Odelein. Nice revenge after Odelein mashed St. Louis' face into the ice in the second period in front of referee Rob Martell, who did not make a call.
Odelein made it 3-3 with 5:46 left on a shot that bounced off Lukowich before it bounced past Grahame. But all that did was set up St. Louis' winner.
"It's big," St. Louis said of the No. 1 seed. "But if you don't do anything with it, it means nothing."
