Eklund back on track in win over Falcons
The Providence goalie stops 21 shots in posting his first victory since January 21.
01:00 AM EST on Sunday, March 19, 2006
BY FRAN SYPEK

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- When the Providence Bruins were in Philadelphia earlier this month, coach Scott Gordon had a long talk with Brian Eklund. As a former netminder, Gordon knows that playing goal can often be a roller-coaster ride and become a mind game. Eklund would lose that night, 3-2, to the Phantoms and would watch as Jordan Sigalet started the next six games, winning five. Eklund got his chance last night against his former team and delivered. Eklund made 21 saves to win his first game since Jan. 21 as the Providence Bruins posted a 7-1 victory over the Springfield Falcons before 4,019 at the MassMutual Center.

"It's been a long year," Eklund said. "Mentally, it's been the most draining year I've gone through." But things were good for Eklund and the P-Bruins last night. Jonathan Sigalet scored two goals, and Eric Healey, Nathan Robinson, Ben Walter, David Lundbohm and Scott Ford one each for the P-Bruins, who have won five of their last six games and continued their domination of the Falcons. Providence is 6-1-1-1 against Springfield.

Eklund welcomed the change of scenery when he was traded Feb. 8 by the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Boston organizaton for left wing Zdenek Blatny. He began the season third on Tampa Bay's goaltending chart, made his NHL debut in Montreal on Nov. 8, but was soon back in Springfield playing behind rookie Gerald Coleman.

"A lot happened to Brian this year and he had to put it behind him," Gordon said. Eklund, who played his college hockey at Brown University, listened. "It was a good talk and it was pretty much calling a spade a spade," Eklund said. "It meant a lot and I knew when I got my chance, I had to go out there and prove something." The P-Bruins connected on three of their first eight shots against Falcons goalie Jonathan Boutin in building a 3-1 lead. Walter and Sigalet added second-period goals against backup goalie Morgan Cey to pad the margin to 5-1. The opportunistic P-Bruins opened the scoring when Sigalet scored a power-play goal 3:14 into the game.

The Falcons were down a man and Dan Cavanaugh broke his stick. Sigalet was sent in by David Lundbolm and the rookie defenseman snapped a high wrist shot past Boutin's glove. The Falcons knotted the score at 1-1 at 6:22 of the first period. Eklund appeared to be screened when Timo Helbling beat him with a slap shot from the point. Healey converted a feed from Eric Nickulas at 11:21 of the first period to give the P-Bruins a 2-1 edge. Nickulas found Healey open in the slot and the former Falcon beat Boutin on the backhand for his 29th goal. Robinson took advantage of a turnover in the neutral zone and converted a 2-on-1 opportunity by beating Boutin with a wrist shot at 16:39.

Rivet, Zednik goals give surging Canadiens 3-2 win over powerless Lightning

Bill Beacon
Canadian Press

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

MONTREAL (CP) - As hot as they are, the Montreal Canadiens would like to find a way to win games more comfortably.

Montreal needed sharp goaltending from Jose Theodore and goals in the third period from Craig Rivet and Richard Zednik to down the slumping Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Tuesday night. It was a fifth straight win for Montreal (12-3-1) and a fourth consecutive defeat for the defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning (7-7-2). Ten of the Canadiens' 12 wins have been by a single goal and they have come back to win in the third period four times.

"This has never happened to me before," said Canadiens forward Alex Kovalev, who set up both third-period goals. "I understand if it happens three or four games, but we've played 16 games now and every game is (close) like that, with a couple of exceptions.

"It's getting ridiculous. We've got to find a way to make it easier on ourselves."

Andrei Markov also scored for Montreal, which drew its ninth straight sellout crowd of 21,273 this season.

Tim Taylor and Vaclav Prospal scored for Tampa Bay, which outshot Montreal 34-19 but ran up against Theodore at the top of his form.

"He's a good goalie," said Tampa Bay defenceman Dan Boyle. "We did a good job of getting the puck to the net, but we've got to get people in front and pounce on the rebounds.

"There we a lot lying there for us."

Montreal coach Claude Julien said his team could have made it easier on itself by getting more shots on Tampa Bay goalie Brian Eklund, who made his first NHL start while John Grahame was rested.

Instead, the Canadiens were outshot 14-2 in the second period and only got back in the game when they started shooting more and going to the net in the third frame.

"When you're at home and you're outshot 14-2, it's unacceptable," said Julien. "Our game plan was to shoot pucks at the young goaltender.

"We're playing well and we're finding ways to win tight games, but sometimes, they don't need to be tight games. We're putting ourselves in that situation. Over 82 games, once in a while you like to find ways to make it easier."

Rivet threaded a point shot in through traffic on a power play to tie the game 6:59 into the third period.

Kovalev stripped defenceman Pavel Kubina from behind at the Tampa Bay blue-line and sent Zednik in alone to score the game-winner on a backhand shot at 9:48.

The Lightning were coming off losses to Atlanta, Ottawa and Toronto and coach John Tortorella shook up his lineup, making 42-year-old captain Dave Andreychuk a healthy scratch and giving Eklund the start in goal.

Tortorella said he was not unhappy with Andreychuk, but plans to rest him occasionally this season.

He also juggled his lines, including putting stars Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Brian Richards together in the first period.

The team produced a strong effort, but not enough to win.

"This was a step forward - we played well," said Boyle. "We made mistakes at the end that cost us the game, but we worked hard. We attacked. We did good things. But we lost.

"It just seemed the puck didn't bounce for us."

Third-line centre Taylor scored first, sweeping in on the right side to put his own rebound past Theodore 3:06 into the game.

Eklund gave up his first goal at 10:53, when Markov's wrist shot from the point went in through heavy traffic on a power play.

The Lightning owned the middle period, but Theodore made save after save before Prospal redirected Boyle's pass into an open side at 13:36.

Prospal has four goals and seven assists in his last seven games.

Eklund, 25, said it was thrill finally to get into an NHL game.

"I felt good," the Braintree, Mass., native said. "I was worried how I would react to all the pressure, but honestly, as soon as the puck was dropped, it was just a hockey game."

It was the first real meeting between the clubs since the Lightning swept Montreal in the second round of playoffs in 2004 enroute to winning the Stanley Cup.

It is only the third time in Canadiens history they have 12 wins from their first 16 games. They also had 12 in 1991-92 and 1976-77.

The Canadiens travel to Pittsburgh on Thursday and return home to face Toronto on Saturday night. Tampa Bay returns home to play the New York Rangers on Thursday.

Third period ruins Eklund's debut
By TOM JONES, Times Staff Writer
Published November 9, 2005

MONTREAL - The Lightning's woes continued Tuesday night.

Tampa Bay blew a one-goal lead in the third period and fell to the Canadiens, 3-2, in front of a sold-out crowd of 21,273 at the Bell Centre.

Goalie Brian Eklund played well in his first NHL start, but not well enough as the Lightning lost its fourth in a row, its longest losing streak since dropping four consecutive games in December of 2003.

The Lightning led 1-0 and 2-1 on goals by Tim Taylor, his first of the season only 3:01 into the game, and Vinny Prospal's ninth of the season in the second period.

But Montreal's Craig Rivet and Richard Zednik scored less than two minutes apart midway through the third to ruin Eklund's debut.

"I thought I played well, but it's all about winning and losing and we lost," Eklund said.

The Lightning outshot the Canadiens in every period and 34-19 for the game.

"But we still lost," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "We just got to keep on pushing."

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: If Eklund was nervous about his first NHL start, he didn't show it.

After Tuesday's morning skate, Eklund was almost giddy at the thought of starting. In Montreal, no less.

"It's an honor to make my debut in Montreal," Eklund said. "This is something I'm going to remember the rest of my life - good, bad, indifferent, win or loss, tie, shootout, it doesn't matter. I'm probably going to remember every minute of it and every breath I take. This is going to be awesome."

Most NHL goalie prefer not to talk to the media the day they start, but Eklund was all smiles and quotations as he was surrounded by cameras, microphones and notebooks.

"I'm not used to having cameras in my face," Eklund said. "I'm usually the kid in the other locker room getting dressed by myself just hoping to get to the ice on time."

Bolts Change, Result Doesn't
By ERIK ERLENDSSON

Published: Nov 9, 2005

MONTREAL -- Looking to shake things up after a sluggish start, Lightning coach John Tortorella sent a jolt through the locker room Tuesday.

Captain Dave Andreychuk, a 23-year veteran who has played in 1,612 games, was a healthy scratch Tuesday against Montreal. In 15 games this season, Andreychuk had a pair of goals -- both coming against New Jersey on Oct. 26 -- to go with seven assists and was a minus-four. He recently was dropped from the third line to the fourth and has been guilty of committing costly turnovers, one which led directly to a goal Saturday in Toronto.

The changes, which included giving rookie goaltender Brian Eklund his first start and shuffling the lines, didn't get the results Tortorella was hoping for as Tampa Bay couldn't hold onto a third period lead and lost 3-2 to Montreal before an announced sold-out crowd of 21,273 at the Bell Centre.

The move wasn't a popular one with Andreychuk.

"I'm a little upset," he said. "I've been at this point before a few years ago in Buffalo [during the 2000-01 season]. I knew coming into this year, and I kind of warned my family and everybody else, that this might happen. Obviously I've talked to Torts in the past couple of days quite a bit, and he told me that I might not play every day. I just have to be ready when it's my turn."

"Don't read too much into this," Tortorella said. "I came to this decision before the season started, that occasionally David is going to sit. We are trying to get him into more of a role on the power play and penalty kill and playing some on the fourth line. We'll adjust our next lineup when we get set to play the Rangers [at home on Thursday]."

Andreychuk said he still believes he can play and contribute, but also knows the reasoning behind the move.

"I'm smart enough to know that this is about the team trying to get wins," he said. "Whether it's switching up the lineup to try to get a spark and get some wins, I understand that. I don't like it, but that's part of the business."

Making the team captain a healthy scratch can often send messages through the locker room, but a sense of panic 15 games into the season with Tampa Bay hovering around the .500 mark is not one of them.

"There is no panic in the situation whatsoever," Lightning general manager Jay Feaster stressed. "The fact of the matter is that in today's salary cap world with a team that's less than $50,000 away from the $39 million cap, there's not a hell of a lot you can do. … But in terms of panic, there is no panic whatsoever. That's not how this organization does things from the standpoint of panic."

But Andreychuk's scratch wasn't the only bolt Tortorella sent through the roster Tuesday.

In net was Eklund in place of John Grahame, who had been in goal for the previous four games and seven of the past eight games. With Grahame not coming up with the big saves when the team needed them and the injured Sean Burke not available, Tortorella turned to the 25-year old rookie, who appeared confident.

"I'm not used to all these cameras around," Eklund said before the game. "I'm usually the kid in the other locker room changing all by myself just hoping that I get out onto the ice on time."

Changes were made within the lineup, as well.

The line on the ice for the opening faceoff had Vinny Lecavalier centering Marty St. Louis and Brad Richards. Vinny Prospal moved to center on the second line between Evgeny Artyukhin and Fredrik Modin, while Ruslan Fedotenko was dropped to the fourth line with Nick Tarnasky and Martin Cibak, who was back in the lineup for the first time since Oct. 16.

The top two lines were reassembled, however, with Richards back at center and Prospal playing left wing with Lecavalier and Artyukhin.

Third Period Rough On Everyone, Especially Eklund
Published: Nov 9, 2005

MONTREAL - Once again, it was good, but not good enough.

Tampa Bay lost is fourth consecutive game in a 3-2 loss to Montreal. Richard Zednik scored on a partial breakaway with a backhander with 10:12 remaining as the Canadiens wiped out a 2-1 deficit entering the third period.

Even with a series of lineup changes, which included scratching captain Dave Andreychuk and starting rookie Brian Eklund in goal for his NHL debut, the spark wasn't enough.

The Lightning outshot Montreal, including 14-2 in the second period but with only Vinny Prospal's redirect of a Dan Boyle shot finding its way past Jose Theodore, who finished with 32 saves.

"I thought the keys to the game were, our power play was good early, but Theodore was better," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "Then late our power play struggled and you just knew it was going to bite back at you."

Tampa Bay grabbed a 1-0 lead on Tim Taylor's first goal since opening night 3:06 into the game, but Andrei Markov answered on the power play at 10:53 with a shot from the left point.

In the third, Craig Rivet fired a shot from the center point that appeared to change direction and slipped past Eklund's left shoulder. On the winning goal, Pavel Kubina was up at center ice in an effort to retrieve the puck but missed, allowing Alex Kovalev to spring Zednik for the breakaway just ahead of Darryl Sydor, who attempted to swipe the puck off Zednik's stick.

"I felt pretty good out there, but in the end you are judged by wins and losses," said Eklund, who finished with 17 saves.

Eklund Gets Start Vs. Canadiens
By ERIK ERLENDSSON
Published: Nov 8, 2005

MONTREAL - Brian Eklund skated off the ice and headed for his locker stall inside the Lightning locker room. With John Grahame still on the ice, the question hit Eklund even before he could take off his pads.

With Eklund coming off the ice first, was there a meaning behind it?

"Could be," a coy Eklund responded to the question.

But it was apparent that Eklund was getting the call to make his NHL debut and get the start in net against the Montreal Canadiens. A crowd of reporters quickly jumped on the lineup change.

"I'm not used to having all these cameras around me," Eklund said. "I'm usually the kid in the other locker room getting dressed by himself just hoping to get myself onto the ice on time."

With the team, and in particular Grahame, struggling the past three games, Lightning coach John Tortorella said he wanted to make a lineup change.

"We are getting some of our answers surrounding Johnny Grahame, and now it's time to see where Eklund stands in the scheme of our organization," Tortorella said.

Eklund was recalled on emergency basis on Oct. 29 when Sean Burke strained a groin muscle. With Burke missing his third consecutive day of practice and not showing any signs of getting back on the ice any time soon and Grahame not at his best, Eklund will make his NHL debut. The 25-year old Braintree, Mass., native is in his fourth season with the Lightning organization. He spent all last season with Springfield of the AHL and made four appearances with the Falcons this season, posting a 3-2 record with a 4.06 goals against average and .890 save percentage.

"I'm excited," said Eklund, who has never appeared in any NHL game including the preseason. "I just plan on going out there, working my butt off and trying to help the team win a game. It's something I'm going to remember for the rest of my life, whether it's a win, a loss, an overtime or shootout."

Eklund masked marvel
By Garry Brown, Springfield Republican
Friday, October 21, 2005

Brian Eklund, that tower of strength in goal for the Springfield Falcons, needed only a few practice sessions to get used to his new equipment.

He's having no problem with the smaller pant legs, narrower pads and shrunken catching glove, so mandated in hockey's attempt to bring goal-scoring back to a game sorely in need of it.

"As long as I can still wear a mask, I'm all right," Eklund said. "When I think about the old-time goaltenders, playing all those years without masks, I can't imagine how they did it. The way the shooters fire that puck now, I wouldn't last five minutes if I had to give up the mask."

According to the mathematicians of hockey, the new rules create more shooting space around the goaltenders - 11 percent more, so they say.

Maybe, but skeptics say the only real way to increase scoring is to decrease the size of the goaltenders themselves. Of course, that's not going to happen.

"Sorry, but we're being bred that way today," said Eklund, who at 6-foot-5, 205 pounds, symbolizes the 21st century twine-tender. That new breed certainly presents a major obstacle to any shooter. Along with their size, they're more athletic. They move fast from side to side, and skate well.

"Again, I have to admire those old-timers, because outside of a guy like Kenny Dryden (a Montreal Canadiens Hall of Famer), the goaltenders back then basically were short, fat guys - well, I don't mean fat, but you get the idea," Eklund said.

Short, fat and without a mask. Makes you wonder how Marcel Paille lasted so long, eh?

One might think that any goaltender would be against any rule designed to increase scoring. Not so with Eklund. He not only applauds the more wide-open game, he feels good about the "shootout," a contrivance which assures that no game will end in a tie.

"The shootout is a real challenge - a chance to be a hero or a goat. But I don't believe in ties. The shootout is a means to that end, and it's very exciting," he said.

The AHL had the shootout last season, with encouraging results. Now, the NHL is trying it for the first time.

Eklund and friends went through a spirited practice yesterday in their refurbished MassMutual Center "Nest."

"I took two shots off the mask and a lot in the chest. Yeah, the chest protectors are smaller, too. Makes it feel like you're getting punched with the puck," Eklund said.

He'll be in the nets tonight when the Falcons face Hartford. It's the beginning of a busy home weekend, with Providence in town tomorrow night.

"We've gotten a good start, and I think our team is well-suited to the new rules. Tampa Bay (the Falcons' parent club) never did believe in the trapping game, and we have the speed and size so that the rules play to our strength," Eklund said.

The new rules do put more pressure on goaltenders - including more power plays - but that's OK with him.

Just give him a mask, and he'll do the rest. 

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