Today, Barry Melrose's hopes were crushed even further. When the now ex-Lightning coach was fired 16 games into the season he wished a rather harsh future for the Lightning saying 'I hope they don't win another game all season.'. For the most part, his wish has come true as the Lightning find themselves in 13th in the Eastern Conference, 16 points away from the 8th seed. Tampa has also been the site of what seems like never-ending trade rumors of veterans Vincent Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis being traded away to competing franchises. Yet, today in their matinee against the Bruins they played like a playoff team, not a rebuilding franchise.
In net for the Lightning was Kari Ramo, another one of the 5 goalies the Lightning have used this season. He came into Sunday boasting an atrocious 1-3-1 record with a 4.22 GAA. Surely, this seemed as if the Bruins were going to have a field day against the 22 year old Finland native. However, for the 2nd consecutive night the Bruins were victims of a goalie in the zone.
Phil Kessel started the game off with a bang, scoring within the first 2 minutes of the puck dropping, good for his 25th of the season. The Lightning were not shy to strike back, scoring 2 goals within 15 seconds of eachother to give them a 2-1 edge. Nearing the close of the 1st, alternate captain Andrew Ference added his first goal of the season on the powerplay to let the Bruins skate into the locker room tied at 2-2.
As the game went on, Ramo seemed to get more clutch. Stopping nearly every Bruins chance for the next 40 minutes. 20 year veteran Mark Recchi netted his 13th goal of the season and his 535th of his career at the halfway mark of the 2nd. After Zdeno Chara tied it with 4 and half minutes left in the 2nd the teams skated off tied yet again.
In the 3rd period, it was all Kari. He stoned the Bruins again and again. As Andrew Ference got called for a delay of game penalty with 3 minutes left in the game, the Lightning found themselves on the powerplay yet again. One Vinny Prospal snapshot by Fernandez later and the game was over. The 13th place Lightning had beaten the NHL best Boston Bruins.
Just what went wrong for Boston? The answer is goaltending. A what-appeared-rusty Manny Fernandez stopped just 14 of Tampa's 18 shots. That's good for a .770 save percentage for those who are curious. He often looked overmatched and made a rookie mistake on an Adam Hall wrap-around. With 7 games in the proceeding 14 days Fernandez will undoubtedly find himself with a chance to redeem this rather awful game.
The Bruins head home tonight where they'll start a 6 game homestand on Tuesday against the Florida Panthers. They'll look to avenge their shut-out loss to Tomas Vokoun and the Panthers on Saturday. This homestand will be a big test for the Boston Bruins without question as they play host to 5 teams currently in the playoff picture.
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