From: wilson@cs.ucf.edu (tom wilson)
Subject: TB sweeps CA road trip: TB vs. SJ 12/16
Organization: University of Central Florida, Orlando
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 10:15:25 GMT

Could anything possibly top last night's exciting win in LA? Well, everything
was setup for an anti-climatic game against San Jose. I missed much of the
1st period due to bad reception while on the highway, but it started much like
the first meeting of the two teams. TB was all over SJ but Hackett made the
saves again and again. Bergeron was given the start as Crisp has continually
given the hot goalie the start. Just as in the first meeting, it was 0-0 at
the end of the first. The announcers said it could have been 2-0 for TB.

The second period started much the same way. Shots at one point were something
like 15-5 for TB (not sure though). As is usually the case when the team that
is pressuring can't score, SJ tallied first: Ozolinsh 4 (Pederson, Gaudreau)
10:33 (pp). They repeated the performance later in the period: Gaudreau 8
(Ozolinsh, Kisio) 17:42 (pp). That's how the period ended. The way Hackett
was playing, I thought TB might experience their first shut out against.

In the third period, things really turned grim as TB gave up their second
shorthanded goal of the season: Kisio 9 (Berezan, Zettler) 0:52 (sh). TB and
Vancouver lead the league with fewest shorthanded goals allowed. TB is still
at least tied for the league lead since Vancouver gave up 2 SH goals to
Edmonton. Oh well, back to the game. The goal was also a killer since it came
in the first minute. There was a little light at the end of the tunnel as TB
got the goal back on the same power play: Bureau 4 (Hamrlik, Ramage) 2:30 (pp).
Well, they avoided the shutout, but it got more exciting when the scored again
17 seconds later: Tucker 5 (Bradley, Reekie) 2:47. This setup what might be
the Lightning's 5th consecutive 1-goal game, but TB was able to tie it at 3-3:
Bradley 24 (Kontos, Maltais) 6:21. Later, SJ took the lead again: Ozolinsh 5
(Scremin, Odgers) 11:06. Ozolinsh was having a good game all night. Well, it
was a nice come back and it looked like the 1-goal game would still happen,
but fairly late in the game, TB tied it again: Reekie 2 (Creighton, Andersson)
17:00. This was TB's 4th goal of the period and their best 3rd period all
season. That's how the period ended.

In OT, SJ hit the post and the goal light went on (as opposed to last night's
goal when it didn't go on). The play was stopped and video replay was used
to verify that no goal was scored. Not much later, the potential elation turned
to definite despair as TB won the game in OT: Tucker 6 (Bradley) 2:53.

TB scored 5 goals in a little over 20 minutes, beginning with a 0-3 deficit.
Even though SJ has been allowing a lot of goals all year, I certainly didn't
expect this come back. TB has comeback from deficits several times this year,
but rarely tied the game let alone won it. It's hard to say if TB deserved to
win or not. They evidently could have been up 3-0 long before SJ was. SJ
definitely has good goaltending, but perhaps they need a couple of solid
defensemen to reduce the number of opposing opportunities. The teams will
battle one more time in Tampa on 1/23. The stars of the game were: 1-Tucker,
2-Ozolinsh, and 3-Reekie.

Too bad more road games are on TV in comparison to the home games on TV. The
two best back-to-back road games all year and neither were on TV here.

TB sweeps CA, winning on a PS in LA and in OT in SJ, and returns home for NJ
(I tried to get in as many abbreviations as possible there 8-). It was a good
start to 6 games in 9 days. After NJ on Friday and Philly on Sunday, TB heads
to Boston on Tuesday and Hartford on Wednesday. These two games are part of
TB's longest road stretch of 9 games, but with a whole week off from 12/24 to
12/30. On 12/31 in Chicago, Basil McRae may make his return. He broke is ankle
there on 10/11.

One last interesting note. TB is 2-3-2 in OT. All of these have been on the
road. I don't think Espo will allow free hockey in the home arena 8-).

Tom