St. Louis Wins It for Lightning

The Stanley Cup was on Canadian soil Saturday, back where the millions of it’s-our-game zealots feel it belongs. Satisfaction was so close.

This, though, was a short visit, a tease that had to torture millions north of the border.

Martin St. Louis’ hack at a rebound raised a welt on a national psyche. He pushed a shot just inside the post to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 victory over Calgary 33 seconds into the second overtime to send the series back to Tampa for Game 7.

A crowd of 19,221 at the Pengrowth Saddledome, as well as thousands in the Calgary streets, was set for an outpouring of national pride. All that was in motion, then St. Louis said: Whoa, Canada.

St. Louis created the opportunity by knocking the puck away from defenseman Jordan Leopold. The Flames were unable to clear the puck and Tim Taylor got off a shot from the blue line. Goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff made the save, but St. Louis was there to tuck the rebound under, between the post and Kiprusoff, deflating what had been a raucous crowd.

“I was waiting to see if the rebound would come,” St. Louis said. “At that point, it’s not the pretty-shot goal that’s going to win.”

Beauty was in the eye of the beholder. The Flames had to cringe after coming so close, while the Lighting collectively sighed, living to play another day.

“I don’t think I could have asked for anything more,” said Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk, who has played 1,758 NHL games without winning the Stanley Cup, the most by a player in league history. “Seems like a long time ago when I started and it’s taken a while to get here, but I finally have my chance.”

That chance will come Monday night at the St. Pete Times Forum. The Stanley Cup, like many people, may retire to Florida, considering the stalled labor talks and the possibility of a lengthy lockout.

That became possible only after the Flames were finally put to rest. Twice Calgary fought back from one-goal deficits and the Flames took over the game in the third period, nearly coming away with the victory.

Late in the period, Oleg Saprykin bulled his way to the net and flipped a shot on goal. Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin made the stop, but the rebound ricocheted off the skate of Martin Gelinas and back off Khabibulin’s right leg pad. The puck appeared to cross the goal line on television replays, magnified.

“I haven’t seen the play yet,” Gelinas said. “They have so many camera angles now that if they see it might have gone in, they’ll phone down. If it does show it go in, that’ll be tough to take and shame on them.”

Colin Campbell, director of operations for the NHL, said in a statement that it was “inconclusive whether the puck crossed the goal line.”

Coach Darryl Sutter, unlike Wednesday when he accused the NHL of bias toward the Lightning, did not take issue with the play.

“I looked at two different angles and you can’t say it’s a goal,” Sutter said. “You can’t argue the point.”

Besides, the Flames had no one to blame but themselves. They played poorly at the start, and Brad Richards made them pay for putting the Lightning on the power play twice in the second period.

After the Flames were unable to clear the puck, Richards flipped a shot from below the goal line near the corner, with the puck caroming off Kiprusoff’s stick and into the net for a 1-0 lead 4:17 into the period.

Richards, who has 12 goals in the playoffs, then cashed in Marcus Nilson’s gaffe. Nilson, falling down, tried to slide the puck to Robyn Regehr, but Richards stole the puck and fired a shot between Kiprusoff’s legs for a 2-1 lead.

The Flames tied the score, 2-2, when Nilson banged in a Saprykin pass 17:49 into the period.

Said Gelinas: “We have to leave this one behind.”