St. Pete Times Forum - Tampa Bay Lightning

Trip Notes: Flew into Ft. Lauderdale and hopped into my rental car and headed west to Tampa Bay...a 4 hour drive. Checked into my hotel near Busch Gardens. The next evening was the Lightning game. After the game I headed back to Ft. Lauderdale. Probably should’ve stayed in Tampa that night but wanted to be by the beach as much as possible which I did. Discovered Wing Stop in Ft. Lauderdale….great wings. Left town the next day.

Arena Notes: Had to check out of my hotel pretty early so I got to the arena almost 3 hours early. It turned out to be a good thing. It was easy to find and parking was super close. When I first arrived, the arena football team was practicing just outside of the arena. I watched them play for awhile. Soon after they started setting up all the festivities for the game. I’m not sure if it was all for the holiday weekend, Martin Luther King day, or a regular deal. They had all sorts of free games such as hockey speedshot, golf drive , and bungee fun. There was a band and even beer tents as well. It was all located in front of the main entrance. It was a lot of fun. Noticed a lot of people wearing Avs jersey most being kids. My seats were on the 3rd level at center ice. Great seats! St. Pete Times Forum opened it’s doors in 1996. It houses 19,500 hockey fans. ThunderBug is their mascot. The only retired number they have is league wide, #99 Wayne Gretzky.

Game Notes: Milan Hejduk had to wait six seasons for a penalty shot. He has made the most of two recent opportunities.
Hejduk scored his second goal of the game on a penalty shot 59 seconds into overtime, giving the Colorado Avalanche a 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night.
"It was an interesting finish," Hejduk said. "Not many times you'll see a penalty shot in overtime."
It was only the third time an NHL game ended on a penalty shot in overtime. Philadelphia's Michal Handzus scored against the New York Rangers on Dec. 5, 2002, and Nashville's David Legwand also beat the Rangers on Dec. 23, 2000.
Hejduk, who also had two assists, was awarded the penalty shot after getting tripped from behind by defenseman Brad Lukowich. Hejduk calmly skated in and beat goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin with a wrist shot high to the glove side.
"I didn't want to fumble the puck or something, so I tried to make a little deke and go upstairs," Hejduk said. "We know he's a butterfly goalie. He goes down, so we tried to shoot high as much as possible."
Hejduk also scored on a penalty shot Jan. 11 at Chicago. He has the last two penalty-shot goals in the NHL.
"In six years, I didn't have anything, and all of sudden two," Hejduk said.
Hejduk scored from the right circle with 6:19 left in the third period to pull the Avalanche even at 4.
"I think we need a save," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "I have some negative thoughts about a couple things and guys, but I don't have a negative feeling about our hockey club."
Colorado also got goals from Joe Sakic, Martin Skoula and Alex Tanguay, who added two assists.
"It wasn't easy because that team threw everything at us they could," Colorado coach Tony Granato said. "The end of regulation was appropriate the way both teams played, and we were able to finish it out."
The Avalanche are 9-1-0-1 over the past 11 games.
Fredrik Modin, Dmitry Afanasenkov, Tim Taylor and Ruslan Fedotenko had the Tampa Bay goals.
"It was an exciting game," Tortorella said. "We enjoyed watching it from the bench."
The Lightning lost for the second time in seven games. The other defeat came in a 2-1 loss Saturday at Florida in which Tampa Bay outshot the Panthers 51-15.
"I do feel better because we got a point," Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis said. "But I'm disappointed the way we're playing late in the third period."
Modin put the Lightning ahead 1-0 at 4:57 of the first. The Avalanche tied it on Sakic's short-handed goal during a three-on-two at 10:21. He has 13 goals and 31 points in 21 games against the Lightning.
Skoula gave Colorado a 2-1 lead at 13:11. The Avalanche scored twice on their first five shots against Khabibulin, who finished with 19 saves.
Colorado's David Aebischer stopped 31 shots. The Avalanche are 5-7-5 when trailing after two periods.
Afanasenkov got the Lightning even at 2 at 4:16 of the second.
The teams traded goals in a span of 2:36 midway through the second. Tanguay scored at 9:04 before Taylor tied it again at 11:40.
Fedotenko made it 4-3 with 2:54 left in the second from in close after Vincent Lecavalier stole the puck in the Colorado zone.
Game notesColorado C Peter Forsberg missed his second straight game with a groin injury. He has sat out 24 games overall this season, including 19 in a row from Nov. 11 to Dec. 26 because of a groin injury. His status will be determined on a daily basis. ... Tanguay has four goals and 12 points during a seven-game point streak. ... Taylor (23 games), Skoula (22) and Afanasenkov (15) snapped goal-scoring droughts. ... The Lightning are 8-3-1 at home against Colorado. ... New Jersey's Patrik Elias was stopped on a penalty shot in overtime this season, the second time in his career it has happened -- both against the Islanders.
(*Game notes taken from espn.com*)