Friday night was fan appreciation night at the St. Pete Times Forum as the Tampa Bay Lightning wrapped up their regular season home schedule with one final tune up against their cross stat rival, the Florida Panthers. And boy, the Lightning sure did a good job showing their appreciation of the fan support this year by dominating the Florida Panthers, winning 4-2.
“To be a playoff team means that we had a very solid year,” Lightning forward Steven Stamkos said. “It’s not about the points, its about finishing off strong in front of our fans who have supported us from day one.”
The Lightning would get off to a quick start in this one when Vincent Lecavalier converted on the powerplay to give the Bolts a 1-0 lead. For Lecavalier, it was his 23rd goal of the season. Florida would tie it up less then 8 minutes later on a Jason Garrison shot from the point that appeared to change directions before beating Dwayne Roloson. The Lightning would re-take the lead less then 4 minutes later when Ryan Malone stole a puck and threw it in the general direction of the Panthers goal. The puck deflected off a defenseman and past Scott Clemmensen to give the Lightning the lead going into the first intermission.
In the second frame, the Lightning took control of the game. Vincent Lecavalier got hauled down on a semi-breakaway and got awarded a penalty shot. On the shot, Lecavalier avoided the attempted poke check and out waited Clemmensen before roofing the puck to extend the lead to 3-1. Later in the period, with just under 5 minutes left in the period and Lightning on the man advantage, it was Pavel Kubina getting his 4th goal of the year.
In the third, the Panthers would get a goal back from Mike Santorelli, but that is as close as they would get as the Lightning would clamp down defensively.
For the Lightning, the win tied a franchise record for home wins in a season, and earned high praise from head coach Guy Boucher.
“Yes, I am [proud],” Head Coach Guy Boucher said. “We just tied the franchise record for the number of wins at home with 25. So, that’s year one of our plans. Talking about accelerating, they’re as accelerated as they can get. That’s all we wanted to do in front of our fans. So, I’m real proud of the players.”
With Pittsburgh winning tonight, it assures that the Lightning will be going on the road in the first round of the playoffs as the 5th seed in the east. There opponent is yet to be determined though, due to the fact that Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are still fighting for the Atlantic Division title. The Flyers host the Islanders tomorrow and Pittsburgh is in Atlanta on Sunday.
The Lightning will now look to get through the season finale tomorrow without suffering any injuries with nothing to gain from tomorrow’s game, while their opponent, the Carolina Hurricanes, still have everything to play for as they try to sneak into the postseason.
Follow Mike on twitter at www.twitter.com/MikeCorcoranNHL
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.