Lightning Strikes Down Flyers

It took the Tampa Bay Lightning only one period to get back into the flow of the playoffs.

Showing little rust from an eight-day layoff between series, the Lightning won its eighth consecutive playoff game Saturday by defeating the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1, in the opener of the Eastern Conference finals.

“I think, overall, if you ask a lot of guys, I don’t think they felt as good as they thought they might,” Tampa Bay’s Brad Richards said. “But at the same time, as the game went on, I think our game kind of calmed down and we played a little bit better.”

Richards, Dave Andreychuk and Chris Dingman scored and Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 19 shots for the Lightning, which beat the Flyers for the fifth consecutive time and improved to 9-1 in the playoffs.

Game 2 is Monday night in Tampa.

“I’m definitely not discouraged,” Philadelphia goaltender Robert Esche said. “We didn’t come in here by no stretch of the imagination assuming it would go four games, and I don’t think they did either.”

One of the biggest questions before the opener was how Tampa Bay would respond after having more than a week off following its four-game sweep of Montreal in the second round.

The Lightning finished off the Canadiens on April 29 and bided time by trying to simulate game-like situations in practice until Philadelphia clinched its second-round victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

“I thought our guys handled themselves very well in getting themselves settled,” Lightning Coach John Tortorella said.

With only three days between series, the Flyers were the sharper team early. Nevertheless, they failed to take advantage of a couple of scoring chances against Khabibulin in the first period and fell behind, 1-0, on Andreychuk’s goal just over two minutes into the second period.

“One thing we try to focus on as a team is stay levelheaded, not to get too emotionally high or low,” Philadelphia’s Jeremy Roenick said. “We thought we had a really good first period. We had some quality chances.”

Philadelphia, which had an apparent goal by Sami Kapanen wiped out by a goaltender interference call against Keith Primeau, tied it less than five minutes later when Michal Handzus knocked in a rebound after Danny Markov’s pass glanced off the center’s skate and ricocheted off Khabibulin’s pad.

The goal was only the 10th the Tampa Bay goaltender has given up in 10 playoff games. And it was all the Flyers would be able to manage, despite outshooting the Lightning, 20-17.

Richards broke the 1-1 tie with 6:26 left in the second period and Dingman made it 3-1 seven minutes into the third period.

“I think we created enough opportunities. They defended the front of the net well,” Flyer Coach Ken Hitchcock said. “They had a goals-against average under one. That’s pretty impressive. They obviously know how to play defense.”

The officials waved off Kapanen’s goal when Primeau -- on a breakaway -- crashed into Khabibulin after losing his balance in front of the net. Kapanen tapped in the rebound as the goalie scrambled to his feet to complain.