TAMPA, Florida, 20 May 2004 — Brad Richards scored two power-play goals and Ruslan Fedotenko had another as Tampa Bay moved within a win of the first Stanley Cup finals berth in team history with a 4-2 triumph over Philadelphia.
“They have scored (five) power-play goals the last two games, so that’s obviously a concern, and we haven’t,” Philadelphia coach Ken Hitchcock said.
“The difference in the hockey game was they won the special teams games, then we couldn’t finish on all the point-blank chances we had in the second and third periods.”
The three power-play goals gave Tampa Bay a seemingly comfortable lead and delighted the largest crowd in the history of the St. Pete Times Forum on Tuesday.
But Philadelphia silenced the crowd midway through the second period with lightning-quick goals by Michal Handzus and rookie Patrick Sharp.
The Flyers dominated the third but could not get the equalizer past Nikolai Khabibulin, who made half of his 30 saves in the final 20 minutes. “We tried to hang on for dear life. Thank God for Khabibulin,” Tim Taylor said. If we keep playing like we did in the first period, they can’t hang with us. But we let up.”
Philadelphia pulled goaltender Robert Esche for an extra attacker in the final minute, but Alex Zhamnov could not keep in a puck at the left point.
Martin St. Louis raced down the right side and fed Taylor for an empty-net goal that sealed the win with 14 seconds left.
Richards’ two-goal performance tied the team playoff record. Tampa Bay is 30-0-2 this season when he scores.
“The whole team really came out exceptionally hard, relentless in the first period and we played with a lot more desperation and passion,” Richards said.
