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Special teams falter, but offense does not

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 19, 2001

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- There are numbers and then there are numbers.

Taken in a vacuum, that the team was 2-for-10 on the power play and allowed three power-play goals in five chances Tuesday night might sound alarming.

But framed inside a hard-fought tie at 4 with the Senators in front of 7,765 at the Metro Centre, it doesn't seem that bad. In fact, coach John Tortorella praised an offensive performance in which his team, in its preseason opener, outshot Ottawa 35-26 and showed resilience after a slow start.

"I think our offensive zone pressure and opportunities was very good," the coach said. "We had quite a few chances. I thought we controlled most of the game."

Fredrik Modin's goal with 2:15 remaining pulled the Lightning even. Martin St. Louis had one of his two assists on that goal and had a goal; Tortorella caled him "the best player on the ice."

Brad Richards also had two assists.

"We were in their end for a long period of time and created tons of chances," Modin said. "It's a good feeling."

Not so good was the lack of success on the penalty kill, especially when the Senators scored twice on power plays in the game's first 4:49 to take a 2-0 lead.

"We're not all at it yet," Tortorella said of the lack of special-teams practice. "And they created some offensive plays."

Kubina made it 2-1 at 15:44 with a wicked wrist shot. The Senators then committed four consecutive penalties that gave the Lightning 5:23 of power-play time. That included the final 3:36 of the first period with 2:11 of five-on-three.

Goaltender Patrick Lalime stymied Tampa Bay until St. Louis scored on a two-man advantage with 12.5 seconds remaining in the period off a feed from Richards.

Vaclav Prospal made it 3-2 10 minutes into the second period on a power-play goal with assists to St. Louis and Richards. The Senators took a 4-3 lead on a power-play goal by Jason Doig at 13:35 and Ivan Ciernik's goal with 12.5 seconds left in the period.

GOALIE STATS: Nikolai Khabibulin played the first 30 minutes and had 10 saves on 12 shots. Kevin Weekes played the second 30 and had 12 saves on 14 shots.

PAYBACK: This was the first of three preseason games between the teams as part of the compensation the Lightning paid for signing general manager Rick Dudley while he was under contract with the Senators.

Tampa Bay gave Ottawa forward Rob Zamuner, cash (believed to be $1-million) and three preseason games at a location of the Senators' choosing. Ottawa also gets the money from the gate.

"I always try to help Ottawa," Dudley said jokingly.

ODDS AND ENDS: Gordie Dwyer said he had about 10 friends in the stands. The left wing is from Dalhousie, New Brunswick, about a five-hour drive from Halifax. ... Forwards Brian Holzinger, Dave Andreychuk and Matthew Barnaby, and defenseman Nolan Pratt were scratched. ... Tampa Bay faces the Blue Jackets at 7:30 tonight at the War Memorial at OnCenter in Syracuse, N.Y. ... The game will be broadcast on WHNZ-AM 1250.

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