The Tampa Bay Lightning have had plenty of recent success against the Atlanta Thrashers, not losing to them since October of 2009. That trend continued Wednesday night at the St. Pete Times Forum, this time in a rare 2-1 shootout victory over their Southeast Division rivals. It also marked the somewhat surprising return of Vincent Lecavalier, who has been recovering from wrist surgery.
Atlanta would get on the board first, with Rich Peverley scoring his 8th goal of the year at the 13:56 mark of the first period. The shorthanded goal beat a partially-screened Mike Smith to put the Thrashers ahead. The story in the first period was Thrashers netminder Ondrej Pavelec, who made quite a few point blank saves to keep the Lightning off the board.
Into the second, Pavelec would continue to be the story for the Thrashers, as he continues to stonewall the Lightning. The Bolts would get on the board when Sean Bergenheim scored his 6th goal of the year at the 14:18 mark of the period, as he beat a down and out Pavelec to tie the game at one.
This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2010.