Monday, April 12, 2004
Lightning back on track.
First off, for those wondering why there was no blog of Saturday's Game 2, I had to leave for dinner immediately after the game, got back late, and just wasn't inspired to write about it. For those following the series solely from this blog (ha), the Lightning fell 3-0 in a completely uninspired performance. Unlike Game 1, where Khabibulin stole it for the Lightning, Rick DiPietro was good but didn't have to be great in the nets for the Islanders.
Anyway, back to the Island for Game 3, and the Lightning struck (a cliched verb for them, I know) twice early, Brad Richards redirecting one past DiPietro, who accidentally ended up dragging it into his own goal, and a nice shot from the hashmarks by Marty St. Louis after a nifty behind the goal pass from Brad Richards, and they made the two early first period goals stand up for the duration, with St. Louis adding an empty-netter to give the Lightning a 3-0 win and 2-1 series lead.
It was obviously all Lightning for the first 10 minutes, but for the next 30 it was all Islanders, and Khabibulin was brilliant again. Not otherworldy like Game 1, but damn impressive nonetheless. Mark Parrish has to be the most frustrated hockey player on the planet at the moment, being robbed several more times tonight. The Lightning found their bearings in the third, and played a solid defensive period, doing a good job of keeping the puck as much as possible in the Islander zone.
So they've regained home ice, and still have yet to put 60 minutes of solid hockey together, which (I guess) bodes well for the rest of the series. Some interesting notes of trivia. Aside from the fact that tonight was the third 3-0 scoreline in the three games of the series to date, with the win the Lightning go to 4-0 in club history in Games 3 of playoff series. They beat Philly in 1996 on Alexander Selivanov's OT goal to briefly go up 2-1 in that series; took Washington in OT behind Vinny Lecavalier's goal to pull back from the 0-2 abyss in their opening round series against the Caps last season, and got their sole win in the Jersey conference semifinal 4-3 as well.
Game 4 is Wednesday night at Uniondale, NY.
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Anyway, back to the Island for Game 3, and the Lightning struck (a cliched verb for them, I know) twice early, Brad Richards redirecting one past DiPietro, who accidentally ended up dragging it into his own goal, and a nice shot from the hashmarks by Marty St. Louis after a nifty behind the goal pass from Brad Richards, and they made the two early first period goals stand up for the duration, with St. Louis adding an empty-netter to give the Lightning a 3-0 win and 2-1 series lead.
It was obviously all Lightning for the first 10 minutes, but for the next 30 it was all Islanders, and Khabibulin was brilliant again. Not otherworldy like Game 1, but damn impressive nonetheless. Mark Parrish has to be the most frustrated hockey player on the planet at the moment, being robbed several more times tonight. The Lightning found their bearings in the third, and played a solid defensive period, doing a good job of keeping the puck as much as possible in the Islander zone.
So they've regained home ice, and still have yet to put 60 minutes of solid hockey together, which (I guess) bodes well for the rest of the series. Some interesting notes of trivia. Aside from the fact that tonight was the third 3-0 scoreline in the three games of the series to date, with the win the Lightning go to 4-0 in club history in Games 3 of playoff series. They beat Philly in 1996 on Alexander Selivanov's OT goal to briefly go up 2-1 in that series; took Washington in OT behind Vinny Lecavalier's goal to pull back from the 0-2 abyss in their opening round series against the Caps last season, and got their sole win in the Jersey conference semifinal 4-3 as well.
Game 4 is Wednesday night at Uniondale, NY.
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