Lightning Stifles Irate Flames, 1-0

Calgary’s Jarome Iginla left the ice barking at game officials. Flame fans littered the ice with debris. The Tampa Bay Lightning danced off in glee.

Moments before, Iginla had lost the puck off his stick, letting the Flames’ last chance slide away in a 1-0 loss to the Lightning in front of 19,221 at the Pengrowth Saddledome Monday.

For Iginla and the Calgary fans, how much was anger and how much was frustration was difficult to judge. For the Lightning, the reasons for happiness were easy to translate.

Tampa Bay made Brad Richards’ power-play goal -- scored 2 minutes 48 seconds into the game -- stand up, after being handed a controversial two-man advantage. It was Richards’ seventh game-winning goal of the playoffs, an NHL record.

The Lightning won despite being outplayed most of the game, relying on goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin and too many wild Flames’ shots. Tampa Bay won without Ruslan Fedotenko, its leading goal scorer, and Pavel Kubina, one of its top defensemen. Neither played because of injuries.

“We found away to get it done,” Lightning Coach John Tortorella said.

Which sent the best-of-seven Stanley Cup finals back to Tampa tied two games apiece.

“We got the win,” Lightning center Dave Andreychuk said. “I didn’t think we played our best. We would have liked to play in their end more as the game went on. But we won.”

The relief was evident in the Lightning dressing room. On the other side of the wall, emotions were running in a different direction. The two-man advantage, plus a no-call when Lightning defenseman Nolan Pratt upended Craig Conroy in the third period, were embers in the dressing room.

“I’m not talking about the refs,” Calgary defenseman Rhett Warrener said.

The Flames boiled when the Lightning received a two-man advantage. Mike Commodore was called for holding, denying Fredrik Modin a scoring chance. The Flames’ problems were compounded when Chris Clark cross-checked Pratt after the play. Pratt hit back, but only Clark was sent off. Richards then whistled a shot into the upper right-hand corner of the net.

Good karma for the Lightning, which is 30-0-2, 8-0 in the playoffs, when Richards has scored this season. Bad break for the Flames.

“What is a penalty in the second shift was not a penalty in the third period,” Flame Coach Darryl Sutter said.

That mood wasn’t helped late in the game, when Calgary’s Ville Nieminen rammed Vincent Lecavalier’s face into boards and received a five-minute major for boarding (and a game misconduct), leaving the Flames short-handed the last 4:13 of the game.

Khabibulin, who made 29 saves for his fifth shutout of the playoffs, made one last snag, robbing Andrew Ference with less than two minutes left.

“It was definitely a penalty,” Sutter said. “It’s called a five-minute penalty because they react to the player going down. It was a two-minute penalty.”

Iginla’s anger had cooled in the dressing room.

“It doesn’t do us any good to comment now,” Iginla said. “It was pretty tough out there to see the things that went on.”

Yet, Iginla looked inward as well. “The fans have a right to be frustrated, with the way we played and about other things,” he said.

Khabibulin denied the Flames on several occasions, including a 30-second stretch at the start of the second period in which Calgary had four quality chances. But the Flames let Khabibulin off the hook just by not being able to put the puck on net. Quality scoring chances were reduced to loud thuds on the boards and glass.

“We have to find a way to hit the net,” Iginla said.