CALGARY, Alberta, 2 June 2004 — Brad Richards broke the postseason, game-winning goal record to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 1-0 victory over the Calgary Flames Monday, tying the Stanley Cup finals at two games apiece.
Richards notched his seventh game-winner of the playoffs 2:48 into the opening period.
“Sometimes you’re lucky, sometimes you just want to score a goal,” he told reporters after breaking the record of six shared by Joe Sakic and Joe Nieuwendyk.
“Tonight it was a goal early in the game, I didn’t expect that to hold up but it did and we’ll take it.”
Nikolai Khabibulin made the goal stand up, turning aside all 29 shots he faced to collect his fifth shutout of the postseason as the Lightning continued their playoff trend, following up a loss with a victory.
The best-of-seven series now shifts back to Tampa Bay for Game Five tomorrow.
Trailing 2-1 after a bruising 3-0 loss to the Flames here on Saturday, the Lightning stepped onto the Saddledome ice knowing one more defeat would put them in a 3-1 hole out of which only one team has ever been able to dig in NHL history.
Of the 27 teams who have led a Stanley Cup finals 3-1, all but one have gone on to lift the title.
“It was ugly as hell but we found a way to get it done,” said Tampa coach John Tortorella. With the winning team having scored first in the opening three games of the series, Tampa and Calgary roared on to the attack searching for the early goal.
After being shutout by the Flames in Game Three, Tortorella challenged his goalscorers to raise their game and Richards answered the call with his early power-play goal.
A perfect 7-0 in the playoffs when Richards scores, the Tampa center once again proved the Lightning’s good luck charm.
With Calgary’s Chris Clark and Mike Commodore in the penalty box, Richards drifted in from the blueline and hammered a thunderous slapshot past Miikka Kiprusoff for his 10th goal of the playoffs.
The opening period was played at a furious pace but quickly turned into a goaltending duel between Kiprusoff and Khabibulin.
The “Bulin Wall” saved his best work for the final period when he faced 12 shots.
Kiprusoff, who earned his fifth shutout of the postseason in Game Three, turned in another strong effort, stopping all but one of 24 shots.
With the boisterous red-clad crowd of 19,221 urging them on, the Flames surged forward at every opportunity, applying relentless pressure as they looked for the equalizer. But once again undisciplined play hurt Calgary, Ville Nieminen being assessed a five-minute penalty after slamming the Lightning’s Vincent Lecavalier into the boards. That left the Flames a man short for the final 4:13 of the game.
“Definitely a penalty,” said Flames coach Darryl Sutter. “It was called a five-minute penalty because they (the officials) reacted to the player going down.
“It was a two-minute penalty.”
