NHL Recap (Tampa Bay-Chicago)
Posted: Mon December 7, 1998 at 12:33 a.m EST
CHICAGO 7, TAMPA BAY 5
CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Ed
Olczyk scored the go-ahead goal with 55 seconds remaining in a wild
third period and Alexei
Zhamnov and Tony Amonte
both tallied twice as the Chicago Blackhawks
topped the Tampa Bay
Lightning, 7-5, for their third straight win.
The Blackhawks erupted for five goals in the final period and have won
three in a row for the first time since a four-game streak last March
15th-22nd.
Chicago also squandered a 5-3 advantage late in the third period but
regained the lead in the final minute on Olczyk's first goal since February
6th. He poked the puck out of the skates of Tampa Bay's Sandy McCarthy at the
Lightning blue line, cut to the net and lifted a backhander over Corey
Schwab's glove.
"I just got the puck off McCarthy's stick and since the ice isn't very
good at the end of the game, I just took it to the net," Olczyk explained.
"I just went in, faked him once and went to the backhand and got it
upstairs. I had it in my mind what I wanted to do because that's what I
like to do in those situations."
It also was Olczyk's first goal since rejoining the Blackhawks and
almost left normally ebullient Lightning coach Jacques Demers speechless.
"I have nothing against Ed Olczyk, I've known him for a long time.
But he hasn't got much speed," Demers started. "He's been in the minors.
And then we let him go and score the winning goal. That's, that's ...
"How can you not concentrate?" he continued. "It's 5-5 and we've just
come back from a 5-3 deficit. It looks like we're going to get a point on
the road, and it would have been a great comeback for us, especially on the
road. Then, to give up a goal like that?"
Amonte sealed the win with his league-leading 20th goal, scoring into
an empty net from beyond the blue line with 19 seconds to play.
"When it was 5-3, I thought we'd hold them off. But they stuck with
us and came back," he said. "But then Eddie O got a big goal for us.
There's no panic out there. We've got a new confidence and Tuesday in
Detroit is a big test for us."
Five different players scored for Tampa Bay, which has lost 10 of its
last 11 games. The Lightning were trying to post consecutive wins for the
first time since October 23rd-25th.
"I think our defense ran out of gas," Demers said. "We played three
games in four nights and some guys were playing a lot of minutes. But we
had them down and they were going nowhere. We never quit, but boy, we sure
made some stupid mistakes."
Tampa Bay carried a 3-2 lead into the third period but Chicago needed
only 37 seconds to tie it on Zhamnov's second goal of the game and seventh
of the season. The Blackhawks took the lead at 5:25 as Amonte cut in
alone, deked Schwab and whipped the puck into a vacated net as Schwab
hurled his stick in desperation.
Chad Kilger also
scored on a breakaway with 4:03 remaining to give Chicago a seemingly
insurmountable 5-3 cushion. But the Lightning climbed back within one just
53 seconds later, as Darcy
Tucker got to a rebound of Mike McBain's slap shot and lifted the puck
over goaltender Jocelyn
Thibault's right pad.
Wendel Clark tied it
with 1:52 left, getting his team-best 13th goal off Craig Janney's rebound.
Chicago, which snapped a seven-game winless streak against Tampa Bay,
grabbed a 1-0 lead at 2:03 of the first period on Mike Maneluk's goal. But
McCarthy tied it 38 seconds with his first goal since March 16th.
Zhamnov broke the deadlock at 6:57 but Andrei Nazarov lifted the
Lightning into a 2-2 tie 97 seconds later on a wraparound.
Thibault stopped 31 shots and squared his record since joining Chicago
at 3-3. Schwab made 23 saves for Tampa Bay, which had not lost to the
Blackhawks since January 13th, 1994.
"I don't think we panicked, they just scored a goal," Tucker said.
"What can you do? Mistakes happen. But it's tough when it's in the last
minute of a game. I thought we played a heckuva game with a lot of
enthusiasm and if we could've won, it would have been a huge
confidence-builder for us."
© 1998 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
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