Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Turning over the Leafs.
"It is a far, far better butt-kicking we give, than we have ever butt-kicked before!" This is a paraphrase of a line from a very funny episode of Cheers, in which Frasier Crane tried to "update" Dickens for the beer-swilling regulars. It also could describe tonight's 7-2 Lightning win over the Leafs in Toronto, probably the Bolts' most impressive performance of the year, considering the opponent and the location. The Lightning torched Eddie Belfour for four goals in the first period, and never looked back. Toronto got within 4-2 in the second, but a late period power play goal from Dave Andreychuk (who else?) made it 5-2 and it was all over but the booing.
Two of the seven goals tonight were highlight film material: The first was the Lightning's first, as Freddie Modin won a loose puck on the far boards just inside the blue line, beat a couple of Leafs along the boards, got to the goal line, and came right out in front of Belfour and went five-hole on him. The other was the Lightning's sixth goal, with Vinny Lecavalier coming in on the left on a 2-on-1, and doing a complete 360 spin-o-rama on the Leaf defenseman and backhanding one past Easy Eddie. The only negative tonight was the horrible puck-handling of John Grahame, who nearly gave the Leafs two goals by fancying himself a defenseman. Grahame was solid when it came to shot-stopping, though.
It was a great way to close out the Lightning's road schedule this season, with the final five regular season games at home. The Lightning will be at home now through Game 3 of the first round of the playoffs, which will probably be three weeks from tonight. Philly and Boston both won tonight, keeping the heat on, but the Lightning still hold the top spot. And Martin St. Louis, with three assists, not only widened his league scoring lead, but set the Lightning single-season points record in the process.
|
Two of the seven goals tonight were highlight film material: The first was the Lightning's first, as Freddie Modin won a loose puck on the far boards just inside the blue line, beat a couple of Leafs along the boards, got to the goal line, and came right out in front of Belfour and went five-hole on him. The other was the Lightning's sixth goal, with Vinny Lecavalier coming in on the left on a 2-on-1, and doing a complete 360 spin-o-rama on the Leaf defenseman and backhanding one past Easy Eddie. The only negative tonight was the horrible puck-handling of John Grahame, who nearly gave the Leafs two goals by fancying himself a defenseman. Grahame was solid when it came to shot-stopping, though.
It was a great way to close out the Lightning's road schedule this season, with the final five regular season games at home. The Lightning will be at home now through Game 3 of the first round of the playoffs, which will probably be three weeks from tonight. Philly and Boston both won tonight, keeping the heat on, but the Lightning still hold the top spot. And Martin St. Louis, with three assists, not only widened his league scoring lead, but set the Lightning single-season points record in the process.
Comments:
Post a Comment
