Montreal Swept by Tampa Bay

Brad Richards finished what Vincent Lecavalier started, and the Tampa Bay Lightning swept their way to the conference finals for the first time.

Richards scored his second winning goal in a row, and the Lightning beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1, on Thursday night at Montreal. Tampa Bay handed the Canadiens their second series sweep on home ice, after Buffalo did it in the second round in 1998.

“It’s incredible, game-winners or not, just to come in here and win in this atmosphere,” Richards said. “You saw how the atmosphere is at the start of the game and all that; it’s just so much fun. It’s the best time of your life, and you just want to enjoy it.”

The Lightning had never advanced past the second round in its first 11 NHL seasons, but now will have time off before facing the Toronto Maple Leafs or Philadelphia Flyers, with a trip to the Stanley Cup finals on the line.

“I think as you go through trying to get 16 wins to win a Stanley Cup, you need to have some time to heal,” Lightning Coach John Tortorella said. “To get a series done four straight is certainly going to help us, because we have some guys banged up.”

The Flyers lead the Maple Leafs, 2-1, and the earliest they can advance is Sunday.

“We’re just going to watch those other teams battle it out,” Lightning defenseman Dan Boyle said. “Hopefully they can go to seven games, and we’ll be a little bit fresher for the next series.”

Fredrik Modin scored into an empty net with 55 seconds remaining for the Lightning, which has won seven straight games since losing Game 2 to the New York Islanders in the first round.

Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 27 shots, allowing only Niklas Sundstrom’s goal 5:46 in. Khabibulin, who has allowed nine goals in nine games, leads NHL goalies with four shutouts and a 0.99 goals-against average in the playoffs.

Detroit 4, Calgary 2 -- Mathieu Dandenault rescued the Red Wings from an 18-second collapse that could have wrecked their season.

The defenseman scored his first goal of the postseason midway through the third period, and the top-seeded Red Wings beat the Flames at Calgary.

Martin Gelinas and Ville Nieminen scored for the Flames 18 seconds apart in the second period to tie the score at 2-2 before Dandenault got the lead back for the Red Wings.

Tomas Holmstrom fired a shot that Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff got a piece of. The puck squirted through his legs and lay in the crease, where Dandenault nudged it over the line to give the Red Wings a 3-2 lead with 9:58 left.

Game 5 of the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series is Saturday in Detroit.

Kirk Maltby and Boyd Devereaux also scored for Detroit, and Henrik Zetterberg added an empty-net goal in the final minute. Ray Whitney and Kris Draper had two assists each.