|
|
 |
 |
|
| |
Tuesday, Apr. 4 7:30pm ET
Lecavalier sparks Bolts at home | |||||
|
| ||||||
|
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Vincent Lecavalier is playing like a leader. The 19-year Tampa Bay captain had two goals and an assist, and Stan Drulia scored the game-winner with a minute left in the third period as the Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 5-4 Tuesday night. "Anything else that this organization will do in the next few years, Lecavalier is worth the price of admission," Tampa Bay coach Steve Ludzik said. "I've never seen a player on a learning curve like that. I hazard to guess nobody else has either." Drulia scored from in-close after a Boston turnover. Tampa Bay is 2-1-1 in the past four games. Lightning relief goalie Dieter Kochan stopped 30 of 31 shots and picked up his first NHL win. Lecavalier's second goal and team-leading 25th -- which tied it 3-3 in the second period -- came as he was being pulled down by Darren Van Impe. The center made a nifty move on goalie Robbie Tallas, and then reached back one-handed and sent the puck into the net. "I've done that once in juniors," Lecavalier said. "I can't believe I did it tonight. I do it a lot in practice, but I got pretty lucky I guess." Just 19 seconds after Tampa Bay took a 4-3 lead on Mike Johnson's goal at 7:39 of the third, Steve Heinze tied it for the Bruins, completing a 2-on-1. The power-play goal by Johnson, who also had two assists, snapped the Lightning's 1-for-46 drought with the man-advantage. Boston outshot Tampa Bay 44-19, but went 0-for-7 on the power-play. The Bruins (0-4-2) have a six-game winless streak. Tallas lost for just the second time (8-2-1) to Tampa Bay. Three of the Tampa Bay goals came after Bruins defensive miscues. "He did what he could," Boston coach Pat Burns said. "We turned the puck over a couple times, but we worked hard." Kochan replaced Zac Bierk -- who allowed three goals on 13 shots -- late in the first period. Kochan made his only other NHL appearance on March 28, allowing four goals on 17 shots in a 4-2 loss to Dallas. "It was a good situation for me, I got to face some shots," Kochan said. "I wasn't sitting there, having to think about a whole lot. It was fortunate for me I got as many shots as I did just to keep my head in the game. It's obviously very exciting to win your first game." The game, between teams eliminated from postseason play, featured 22 players with less than 90 games of NHL experience. The Bruins had two more players injured, losing both Van Impe (slight concussion) and Jay Henderson (knee). Burns said Peter Ferraro and Johnathan Aitken will join the team from Providence of the AHL. Fredrik Modin and Lecavalier scored on Tampa Bay's first two shots of the game. Modin scored his 22nd goal 1:03 in, and Lecavalier made it 2-0 just 43 seconds later. Boston responded with three straight goals. Cameron Mann and Eric Nickulas scored 90 seconds apart midway through the first period, and Brian Rolston put the Bruins ahead 3-2 just over four minutes before the first intermission. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Boston Clubhouse Tampa Bay Clubhouse RECAPS Ottawa 4 Washington 0
Tampa Bay 5
  | |||||