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TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- One team's weakness continues to be the other team's strength.

Dave Andreychuk and Brad Richards capitalized on a pair of poor clearing attempts in the pivotal second period as the Tampa Bay Lightning posted a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in the opener of the Eastern Conference finals.

Until Game Five of the conference semifinals, Philadelphia struggled in the second period during the playoffs, allowing twice as many goals as it scored. Conversely, the Lightning have dominated the middle period, outscoring their opponents, 12-1, entering this series.

The trends continued in this one as Andreychuk scored his first goal of the postseason 2:03 into the second and Richards buried a loose puck with 6 1/2 minutes remaining to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 edge.

"I really don't know how to explain our dominance in the second period," said left wing Fredrik Modin , who had two assists. "We just seem to get going in the second period."

Tough guy Chris Dingman added a tally in the third for the Lightning, who limited the Flyers to just four shots in the second period.

Cory Stillman added two assists for Tampa Bay, which extended its postseason winning streak to eight games.

Michal Handzus scored the lone goal for the Flyers, who failed to score first for just the second time in 12 playoff games.

Game Two is Monday at the St. Pete Times Forum.

"It's pretty early for a must win, but we have to win road games and you don't want to get late in the series and have to win a road game," said Philadelphia coach Ken Hitchcock, whose team is 2-4 away from home during the playoffs. "You want to try to win them as early as you can and if we can win Game Two, then we can come back in our building in a pretty good frame of mind."

After an eight-day layoff, the Lightning looked rusty at the start as Philadelphia held a 9-5 advantage in shots after the first period and nearly grabbed the lead.

Tampa Bay defenseman Cory Sarich coughed up the puck in the neutral zone to Keith Primeau , who led a 2-on-none against Nikolai Khabibulin . But while deking, the Flyers' captain lost control and his balance, falling into the goaltender.

Sami Kapanen put the loose puck into the net, but the goal was waved off and Primeau was given a penalty for goalie interference.

"I'm trying to make a play and I fall, and we scored on the rebound," Primeau explained. "I'm not going to give the goalie a shove when we have a scoring chance."

Just as Philadelphia killed off a Tampa Bay power play, defenseman Kim Johnsson attempted a clear from the right corner following a faceoff. Instead of leaving the zone, the puck hit the referee and caromed to Modin, who found Andreychuk alone at the bottom of the right circle for the left wing's 43rd career playoff goal.

"I lost one of my 29 faceoffs that I lost and we got a lucky bounce and it hits the referee," Andreychuk said. "I get position on a guy and just try to get the puck in there. It's one of those lucky breaks."

"He does all the little things," Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella said. "I bet half the people here didn't even realize what he did in that game as far as those small, little things that gets the puck out of the end zone. ... This is a Hall of Famer we are talking about."

The Flyers drew even when defenseman Danny Markov 's weak shot from the right point found its way to Handzus, who put a backhander past Khabibulin at 6:48.

Another bad attempt to clear its zone put Philadelphia in a 2-1 hole. Along the left boards, Mark Recchi tried to fire the puck up ice through the middle. But it was intercepted and fired toward the net, where Richards put it by Robert Esche from the left side at 13:34 for his fifth of the postseason.

"Tampa's a good team," Flyers right wing Tony Amonte said. "We knew if we made turnovers in our zone, it could be trouble. ... We have to cut down on our turnovers because they're such a good transition team."

Despite having control in the Tampa Bay zone for much of the period, the Flyers generated few scoring chances as the Lightning blocked the majority of attempted shots. And after a prolonged shift in the attacking end of the rink in the third, Primeau committed a turnover that iced the game.

Dingman grabbed a loose puck and carried through the neutral zone before dumping it wide of Esche. Andre Roy got to the carom off the end boards and fired a shot that the Flyers' goalie stopped.

But Dingman was alone on the right side and buried the rebound at 7:04 for his second career playoff tally.

" Eric Perrin did a good job poking the puck out, and then I saw Andre going wide," Dingman said. "The puck bounced in the slot and I was able to get his rebound."

"It looked like that's something they were trying to do," Esche said. "I don't know if it was or wasn't, only they know. But it was a good play and the guy wound up with a good shot."