Thursday, April 01, 2004
Beast of the East.
The Lightning clinched the #1 spot in the East, and home ice advantage through the conference finals, with a 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers tonight combined with a 3-3 Boston tie with Washington. This, of course, sets up the matchup I dreaded, the Lightning against the Islanders. The Isles only need 2 points by winning or 2 dropped points by Buffalo to nail down the #8 spot. Meanwhile, Detroit clinched the President's Trophy, by beating St. Louis 3-2 tonight, so the Lightning will content themselves with being the top seed in the East.
In tonight's Lightning game, the most encouraging thing aside from the win itself was the return of Martin St. Louis to the scoresheet with two goals. And not only did he score, he nailed the game winner from a tight angle with about two minutes left. His other goal came earlier in the third period, a shorthanded breakaway after stealing a Lyle Odelein pass. The shorthanded goal was St. Louis' 8th of the season, tops in the league, and he virtually wrapped up the scoring crown tonight.
For a long time tonight, it looked like things might go the opposite way - Florida led 2-1 after two periods, and Boston had an early lead on Washington. Next up is a home game against Atlanta Saturday night, and with nothing at stake, I'd imagine Tortorella will rest some of his key players, especially St. Louis.
NOTE: Interestingly enough, the headline on the game recap linked above says "East leaders still trail Detroit", but makes no mention of the President's Trophy race.
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In tonight's Lightning game, the most encouraging thing aside from the win itself was the return of Martin St. Louis to the scoresheet with two goals. And not only did he score, he nailed the game winner from a tight angle with about two minutes left. His other goal came earlier in the third period, a shorthanded breakaway after stealing a Lyle Odelein pass. The shorthanded goal was St. Louis' 8th of the season, tops in the league, and he virtually wrapped up the scoring crown tonight.
For a long time tonight, it looked like things might go the opposite way - Florida led 2-1 after two periods, and Boston had an early lead on Washington. Next up is a home game against Atlanta Saturday night, and with nothing at stake, I'd imagine Tortorella will rest some of his key players, especially St. Louis.
NOTE: Interestingly enough, the headline on the game recap linked above says "East leaders still trail Detroit", but makes no mention of the President's Trophy race.
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