Sports: Lightning bugged

Lightning bugged

A pair of fluky goals and a hot rookie goaltender power the Flyers to 3-0 victory.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO

TAMPA -- You've heard the term "lucky bounce." Lightning goaltender Dan Cloutier doesn't buy it, especially as it pertains to Friday night's 3-0 loss to the Flyers in front of an announced 19,303 at the Ice Palace.

Philadelphia got one goal when the puck deflected into the net off the stick of Lightning defenseman Pavel Kubina. It got a second when Philadelphia's Keith Primeau batted the puck out of midair after its improbable bouncing journey past four Lightning players.

Cloutier doesn't call that luck.

"Is it just luck or hard work?" he asked. "When you work hard, you get those bounces."

It doesn't hurt that the Flyers have a big, physical lineup that wins the battles along the boards and knows how to put the clamps on an opponent and protect a lead.

Check out this stat: Philadelphia spent 28:24 in the Lightning zone, which is a lifetime, and outshot Tampa Bay 34-21. The Lightning visited Philly's side of the ice for 18:19.

The Flyers also have a house in net in rookie goaltender Roman Cechmanek, who made 21 saves to get his third shutout and extend his unbeaten streak to 8-0-3 and the Flyers' to 3-0-2.

"Give Philly a little credit," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "That's a good hockey team."

But don't let the Lightning off the hook.

Tampa Bay squandered myriad scoring chances in the first period. Cechmanek made saves, but the Lightning players will kick themselves when they watch the game tape.

There was Brad Richards passing up what seemed a golden opportunity in front of the net to pass to Vinny Lecavalier, who couldn't beat Cechmanek.

There was 20-goal scorer Fredrik Modin, whose backhander was smothered by the sprawling goaltender. Modin settled for the backhand after a stick check knocked the puck off his forehand.

Then it was Todd Warriner, who got a pretty pass in stride from Mike Johnson in the slot. Cechmanek stopped the first shot, then Warriner's backhander off the rebound.

"With a team like ours, there's not much room for error," Tortorella said. "When you have an opportunity to get a lead on a team like Philly, you can't let that go by the boards. When your big guys have the opportunity, we have to score."

The Richards-Lecavalier sequence screams for closer inspection. Why did Richards pass when he was one-on-none with Cechmanek? Richards said it was not so cut and dried.

"I thought I'd give (Lecavalier) an open net and we'd score for sure," he said. "I had nothing. (Cechmanek) is so big."

If anything, Richards said, he should have held the puck longer before he passed to pull Cechmanek out of position. But he didn't and Cechmanek put the left pad out and stopped Lecavalier's shot.

"If he gets the puck over that pad," Richards said of Lecavalier, "it's 1-0."

Instead, Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead 11:04 into the game, when Ruslan Fedotenko was credited with a goal after his centering pass to Mark Recchi went off Kubina's stick and past Cloutier.

The Flyers scored twice in the second. Defenseman Dan McGillis got one on the power play. And then came the Primeau bounce-a-thon. The brother of Tampa Bay's Wayne Primeau watched a soft shot blaze an erratic trail to avoid five players, four from the Lightning, before arriving knee-high at his doorstep. Primeau swung for his 17th goal and sixth in four games.

"He's one of the hottest scorers in the league," Cloutier said. "When you're scoring like that, you're going to get the bounces."

Lucky and otherwise.