The Tampa Bay Lightning found the answer to Keith Primeau in Brad Richards.
Richards scored twice on the power play and Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 28 shots Tuesday night as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 and moved within one victory of their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"The whole team really came out exceptionally hard and relentless in the first period. We played with a lot more desperation and passion," Richards said. "That got everybody going. It so happened I scored two goals, but it was a big effort by everybody."
Ruslan Fedotenko scored a third power-play goal, and Tim Taylor added an empty-netter off a pass from NHL scoring champion Martin St. Louis to ensure the Lightning would take a 3-2 lead in their first appearance in the Eastern Conference finals.
Game 6 is Thursday night in Philadelphia, where the Flyers are 7-1 in the playoffs after splitting Games 3 and 4 in this series. Game 7, if necessary, will be Saturday night in Tampa.
"Of course we want to try to finish it, but I think some other people over there in Philly have some other idea about it," Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella said. "I think it's just been a fantastic series."
Khabibulin recovered from a shaky stretch in which he gave up two goals within 38 seconds to stand tall for Tampa Bay down the stretch. He stopped 15 shots -- half the number the Flyers attempted all night -- in the third period.
Primeau was virtually a one-man wrecking crew in the two games in Philadelphia, winning Game 4 with a short-handed goal and setting the tone for the physical play that the Flyers hope will take its toll on the smaller Lightning as the series moves into the late stages.
The Lightning felt if they were going to gain the upper hand, they had to find a way to slow down the Philadelphia captain without getting away from their game, which is predicated on speed and controlling the puck, rather than outmuscling opponents.
Feeding off the energy of a sellout crowd of 21,517, Tampa Bay outshot the Flyers 18-8 in the opening period and took a 1-0 lead on Fedotenko's sixth goal of the postseason.
Richards scored from the left circle just 24 seconds into the second period, then made it 3-0 when he beat goaltender Robert Esche after Vincent Lecavalier won a faceoff against Primeau in the Flyers' defensive zone.
Cory Stillman slipped a pass to Richards in the slot, and the Tampa Bay center scored a mere three seconds into the power play.
But just when it looked like the game might be drifting out of reach, the Flyers scored twice on Khabibulin within 38 seconds with Michal Handzus redeeming himself for being in the penalty box when Richards gave Tampa Bay its three-goal lead.
Handzus scored just under nine minutes into the second, and Patrick Sharp, assisted by Primeau, added his first career playoff goal to trim the Lightning lead to 3-2.
Philadelphia pulled Esche with a minute to go, and Taylor scored his empty-net goal with 14.3 seconds left.
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