Lightning/NHL

Finally, that elusive win

Lightning 5, Flyers 2

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published November 3, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [AP Photo] Lightning's Filip Kuba falls on goalie Johan Holmqvist as Flyers' Geoff Sanderson tries to jam the puck past.

PHILADELPHIA - The last nine minutes of the Lightning's game Thursday night against the Flyers was a raging mass of bad bounces, sudden goals, tension and uncertainty.

Marty St. Louis wouldn't have had it any other way.

Granted, that was easy to say after Tampa Bay's 5-2 victory at the Wachovia Center snapped a three-game losing streak. But considering the way the Lightning has folded this season at crucial moments, the right wing said his team needed a game in which it survived under duress.

"We had to prove we could do it and regain some confidence," St. Louis said.

St. Louis had two goals for a team-high nine, and Vinny Lecavalier had a goal and two assists.

Goaltender Johan Holmqvist made 30 saves for his first win. Tim Taylor scored his first goal of the season, and Eric Perrin scored the first of his career.

But there was so much more as Tampa Bay improved to 6-7-0. As coach John Tortorella said, "It's not something you draw up with how this game ended."

Perrin's goal with 56.1 seconds left in the third period was an empty-netter with the Flyers playing five-on-three. That came 37 seconds after Lecavalier scored an empty-netter with the Flyers playing five-on-four.

And that came after R.J. Umberger and Randy Jones scored 21 seconds apart in the third to cut Tampa Bay's lead to 3-2 with 8:19 remaining.

The Lightning survived for its remarkable 10th straight victory over the Flyers and gave validation of sorts to Tortorella, who before the game insisted that his team, which entered last in the Southeast, shouldn't be written off.

"I'll tell you right now, I'm not buying into this that we're falling apart," he said. "I'm not going to have the fatalist look here that is surrounding our team in thinking that everything is going wrong. It isn't.

"There are a lot of things going good with this club. We just need a way to stop those short momentum swings, and we will."

Tortorella said players were vocal on the bench and looking to make plays, a much different situation than Wednesday's collapse against the Maple Leafs.

Tampa Bay handled the pressure better than Peter Forsberg. The Flyers captain, with 4:10 left in the third and the score 3-2, was called for elbowing and an extra two minutes and a 10-minute misconduct for arguing with referee Marc Joannette.

"This was a test," Lecavalier said. "We passed."

First Period-1, Tampa Bay, St. Louis 8 (Lecavalier, Afanasenkov), 10:39. Penalties-Boyle, TB (hooking), 5:57; Pitkanen, Phi (holding), 6:14; Pratt, TB (slashing), 16:10.

Second Period-2, Tampa Bay, St. Louis 9 (Richardson, Lecavalier), 7:27. 3, Tampa Bay, Taylor 1 (Richards, Fedotenko), 18:10. Penalty-Forsberg, Phi (unsportsmanlike conduct), 18:10.

Third Period-4, Philadelphia, Umberger 2 (Calder), 11:20. 5, Philadelphia, Jones 1 (Gagne, Sanderson), 11:41. 6, Tampa Bay, Lecavalier 8 (St. Louis), 18:26 (en). 7, Tampa Bay, Perrin 1, 19:03 (sh-en). Penalties-Sanderson, Phi (hooking), 1:02; Forsberg, Phi (hooking), 12:25

Forsberg, Phi, double minor-misconduct (high-sticking, unsportsmanlike conduct), 15:50; Holmqvist, TB (high-sticking), 17:57; Richards, TB (tripping), 18:38.

Shots on goal-Tampa Bay 9-12-8-29. Philadelphia 7-10-15-32. Power-play Opportunities-Tampa Bay 0 of 6; Philadelphia 0 of 4. Goalies-Tampa Bay, Holmqvist 1-2-0 (32 shots-30 saves). Philadelphia, Niittymaki 2-6-1 (27-24). A-18,833 (19,519). T-2:23. Referees-Marc Joannette, Dan O'Halloran. Linesmen-Steve Miller, Pierre Racicot.

[Last modified November 3, 2006, 06:06:06]