The Bolts Punch Flyers in Mouth With 4-0 Knockout Tampa, Fl. – The Tampa Bay Lightning (32-15-5) sent a message to the conference leading Philadelphia Flyers (33-13-5) on Tuesday night at The St. Pete Times Forum. And that resounding message was: “We are the best hockey team in the Eastern Conference.” The Lightning shut out the Flyers 4-0 behind a dominate performance in net by Dwayne Roloson as the Bolts net-minder stopped 38 shots to earn his fourth shutout of the season. The win was the team’s 6th in a row and pulled them to within 2 points of the conference leaders. Coach Guy Boucher said after the game that, “It’s not time to look ahead. It’s far too early at this point, but it was a game that we measured ourselves.” Dwayne Roloson was incredible from the first shot he faced as he was under control in net. When Roloson plays as he did for the 16,635 fans in attendance, the Bolts are the best team in the Eastern Conference and, possibly, the NHL overall. He gives them a stabilizing force in goal which allows the team in front of him to be aggressive and take chances without concern that a mistake will end up in their own net. Tampa Bay came out and punched Philadelphia right in the mouth to start the game, as the Lightning scored 2 goals in the first 1:21 of the game. The first tally came on a nice give-and-go between Teddy Purcell and Vinnie Lecavalier which resulted in Purcell’s 9th score on the season just 19 seconds into the contest. The line was not done however. Simon Gagne followed his own bouncing shot off the end boards and the bounding puck found its way to the stick of Teddy Purcell for Purcell’s 2nd tally of the game (and 10th of the season). Gagne was credited with his 2nd assist of the game to catapult the Bolts to a 2-0 lead. Still in the first period, Tampa Bay’s Steve Downie scored at the 14:24 mark with help from Marty St. Louis and Randy Jones. The Flyers had seized a little momentum after back-to-back power plays against the Bolts resulted in pressure on Roloson. Nonetheless, the goal by Downie allowed the Bolts to take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission. A poorly executed line change in the third period capped off a night that the Flyers would like to forget, as St. Louis took advantage of the mistake by jumping on unattended puck for a quick feed to Steven Stamkos. The opportunistic Stamkos roofed a shot into the short side of the net for his league leading 39th goal of the season which came at the 8:51 mark for a 4-0 lead the Lightning made stick courtesy of Roloson. Tampa Bay continues its month-long home stand this Friday as the division rival Washington Capitals visit The St. Pete Times Forum. The puck drops at 7:30 PM. |
 |
|||||||
 
CategoriesCollege BasketballDave Jarvis Fantasy Golf Football Golf Hockey Larry D Lieberman NFL Tampa Bay Lightning USF Bulls |
|
 |
|||||
    |
|||||||
