By Joe Smith, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, May 26, 2011
TAMPA — Right wing Marty St. Louis admitted that, in the past few games, the team's power play just hasn't been there.
The second unit, which includes Steve Downie and Teddy Purcell, had gained some momentum. But St. Louis said the group as a whole "squeezed our sticks a little bit" and didn't show enough poise. As a result, Tampa Bay entered Wednesday 2-for-18 with the man advantage in the Eastern Conference final.
So facing elimination in Game 6, St. Louis said they changed it up. "I think (Wednesday night), we just let go," he said. "We just said: 'Let's go play. Nothing to lose here. Our backs against the wall. Let's go play.' And we got rewarded by putting the puck in the net."
Boy, did they. The Lightning went 3-for-4 with the man advantage, one more tally than its previous five games combined, snapping a power-play scoreless streak of 240 minutes, 7 seconds.
And Tampa Bay's penalty kill, the best among the remaining playoff teams at 92.3 percent, continued to shine by holding the Bruins to 1-for-5 in the 5-4 win.
"Special teams is going to be big in every series, and our power play was phenomenal tonight," defenseman Victor Hedman said. "That's going to be the key next game, too."
The Lightning's first power-play goal Wednesday came from St. Louis, who, like Vinny Lecavalier, was positioned in front of the net as Steven Stamkos ripped a one-timer from the left circle.
St. Louis corralled the loose puck and backhanded it past Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas.
"We attacked the net a lot more," Lecavalier said. "We were struggling a little bit, pretty much the whole series (on the power play). We got into their zone as much as we could, and we set it up, that was one of the big things. After that, we got some shots on net."
Tampa Bay's second power play was, for the most part, ugly, struggling to carry the puck into the Bruins zone. But near the end, Downie showed off his underrated playmaking ability, carrying the puck toward the slot, and bringing Thomas with him, before sliding a pass back to Purcell in the left circle for a one-timer. The third power-play goal was a sizzling slap shot by Stamkos, a one-timer from the left circle.
The last time Tampa Bay scored three or more power-play goals was Game 5 of the quarterfinals against Pittsburgh, when it went 4-for-7 in the first game it faced elimination.
"I think today, both power plays had a lot more poise," coach Guy Boucher said. "And we got the results."