Kings’ Performance Is Crisp in a Victory Over Lightning

For two periods, the Kings played like a team determined to help ease the woes of the Tampa Bay Lightning, which fired Terry Crisp as its coach Sunday.

With the Lightning winless in its previous seven games, the Kings skated the first 40 minutes as if they wanted to make Tampa Bay interim Coach Rick Paterson’s debut a success before 13,044 at the Ice Palace.

But instead of being Tampa Bay’s fix, the Kings used an inspired third period to pull away for a 3-1 decision. It was their first road victory of the season and their first victory over the Lightning in more than four years.

Left wing Vladimir Tsyplakov played his best game of the season with a goal and an assist as the Kings improved to 4-5-3. Yanic Perreault and Luc Robitaille also scored goals and goaltender Stephane Fiset gained his 100th career victory as the Kings defeated the Lightning for the first time since Oct. 20, 1993.

“We knew that [Tampa Bay] would come out strong tonight because of the way that they fired their coach,” said Fiset, who made 26 of his 30 saves in the first two periods. “But most of their shots came from the side and they really didn’t have too many scoring chances. I didn’t have much problems seeing the puck.”

Paterson, named a Tampa Bay assistant before the start of the season, was a surprise choice as interim coach because of recent league-wide rumors that had former Buffalo Coach Ted Nolan taking over the team.

“There has not been any contact with [Nolan], but he will be on the list,” said Tampa Bay General Manager Phil Esposito, who reportedly is not in favor of Nolan’s asking salary. “[For now] Paterson is No. 1 on the list.”

Tampa Bay, which had won five consecutive games over the Kings, started as if it thought it was the best team on the ice. The Lightning attacked the Kings from all angles with every player looking to impress Esposito, who is expected to make more changes. The Kings did their part with two horrendous shifts early in the first period. Jozef Stumpel, Glen Murray and Tsyplakov were caught on the ice for nearly 90 seconds when the Kings could not clear the puck out of their zone.

Then, when the line of Sandy Moger, Robitaille and Perreault took the ice, Tampa Bay scored when Alex Selivanov knocked the puck past Fiset 2:33 into the game. Fortunately for the Kings, however, the goal was disallowed because a Lightning player was ruled in the crease.

Despite being outplayed early, the Kings held off Tampa Bay’s rush until their own checking line of Matt Johnson, Roman Vopat and Brad Smyth got the team’s offense going. With Johnson and Vopat aggressively attacking in the Lightning zone, Tampa Bay defenseman Cory Cross was called for interference, giving the Kings a power play at 8:15.

The Kings, who had not scored a power-play goal in two games, looked sharp in their first man advantage and took a 1-0 lead when Garry Galley and Glen Murray assisted on Tsyplakov’s goal at 8:42. It was only the Kings’ second shot on goal in the game and only the third time this season that they scored first.

Before the period ended, however, Tampa Bay tied the score at 1-1 when Mikael Renberg skated around King defenseman Philippe Boucher to set up a rebound goal by Paul Ysebaert at 16:16.

After a scoreless second period, in which the Lightning extended its shots-on-goal advantage to 27-10, the Kings dominated play the final 20 minutes.

Between the second and third periods, King Coach Larry Robinson decided to switch lines for Robitaille and Tsyplakov. The move worked as Robitaille teamed with Stumpel and Murray to keep the puck in the Tampa Bay zone for most of a key shift. Then when Tsyplakov came on the ice, he made a steal of a Tampa Bay pass and fed to Perreault, who scored on a give-and-go with Moger to put the Kings ahead, 2-1, at 9:55.

For the rest of the game, the Kings maintained their edge. Robitaille sealed the victory with an open-net goal with 55 seconds remaining.