Sports | Lightning

Boyle, Lightning snuff Flames in overtime

Tampa Bay converts five-on-three advantage in first meeting of 2004 Cup finalists.

By TIMES STAFF WRITER
Published March 11, 2007

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CALGARY — The risks for the Lightning on Saturday night were substantial.

It faced a Flames team leading the league in home victories, was mad after a dreary road loss to conference-rival Nashville and perhaps looking for some revenge for losing to Tampa Bay in the 2004 Stanley Cup final.

But it was the Lightning, in the first meeting between the teams since June 7, 2004, Game 7 of the Cup final, which reaped the rewards with a 3-2 overtime victory at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

Dan Boyle’s five-on-three goal with 2:01 left in the extra period was the winner after Vinny Lecavalier scored his league-best 46th goal 6:35 into the third period to make the score 2-2.

Alberta native Nick Tarnasky also scored and assisted on Lecavalier’s goal for his first multipoint NHL game, and goaltender Marc Denis was solid with 25 saves.

"It was a lot of talk about 2004, and it was a very similar game," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "It was physical, both teams played hard and we found a way at the end. Hey, it’s a big win."

Tampa Bay (39-27-4) won its second straight game and third of five on a six-game road trip that ends Tuesday in Toronto. It also took back first place in the Southeast. Both teams have 82 points, but Tampa Bay leads 39-36 in victories.

Give the Lightning credit for beating a team that has 27 victories and only eight losses at home.

The Lightning got a huge break with 3:12 left in the overtime as Daymond Langkow got two minutes for hooking and Roman Hamrlik got four minutes for high-sticking Eric Perrin.

Boyle scored his 15th goal to tie a career high into an empty net after taking a perfect pass from Lecavalier to which goalie Miikka Kiprusoff could not react.

"We kept it simple," Boyle said. "We didn’t get many chances, but we played a solid game all around."

"It’s all relative to what we want to do as a team," Tarnasky said. "We played physical, and everybody did a really good job tonight."

Including defenseman Shane O’Brien, who took the place of injured teammate Paul Ranger on a pairing with Boyle. The rookie played 24:56, had three hits, a takeaway and blocked two shots.

The Lightning led 1-0 after a first period in which it was outplayed early and outshot 12-7. But it battled on defense and got solid goaltending from Denis.

Denis came to play.

He made a glove save on Dion Phaneuf’s shot and had to be quick with 8:51 remaining to stop Hamrlik’s slap shot from just inside the blue line.

Kiprusoff had to be alert with 3:50 left to stop Ryan Craig’s long redirect of Marty St. Louis’ pass from the point during a power play. But the goalie was fooled on Tarnasky’s changeup from the slot that gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with 1:35 remaining.

Jason Ward, who got his first Lightning point, passed to Tim Taylor in a faceoff circle. Kiprusoff stopped Taylor’s shot, but the rebound went to Tarnasky in the slot and he shoveled the puck along the ice for his fourth goal.

The second period was tight checking as both teams played well in the defensive zones and Tampa Bay had a 7-4 advantage in shots and ended leading 30-27.

Calgary made the score 1-1 with 6:04 left when Jeff Friesen converted a two-on-one with a crisp wrist shot.

Calgary went ahead 2-1 4:26 into the third period when Craig Conroy banked in a shot off Denis. The goal was originally disallowed but a video review determined the puck snuck in under Denis’ blocker hand.

Lecavalier tied it from in front of the net off a feed from Tarnasky.

 

[Last modified March 11, 2007, 11:34:06]

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