Lehtonen to Start

(Tampa) - Tonight the Lightning are on the road and play the Pittsburgh Penguins. In net, coach Tortorella decided to play a hunch and start young Kari Lehtonen. The Pens beat Hurme in OT 5-4 and with the team battling to make the playoffs, he wants to see if the young net minder can handle to load. Lehtonen went 0-5 before winning 2 games in a row to finally feel relaxed in Tampa.

"I came over from NY and I wanted to show I can play. Sometimes I was trying to hard and some of the pucks seemed to find holes and sneak in. The last 2 games I just played my game and ensured to stop the first shot and let my defence worry about any rebounds." Lehtonen said.


With the team playing a bit better lately, but alot, the Lightning are looking to win while have some teams falter down the stretch. The Pens are one of those teams, so this is a big game for both clubs. The Lightning will look to slow down Elias and players like Lemieux, Calder, Hejduk, Sullivan, Williams and Prospal have to start scoring on a regular basis. Defensively, Kubina, McLaren, Brewer and Svehla have to shut down the Pens and not allow the 2nd and 3rd shots.

In other team news, the Lightning are still looking to make some trades and with very little offers on some players, the team feels that they will go forward with what they have. The team will rely on the veterans to carry this team and could again, be in the plkayoffs and a chance to defend the Cup they won last season. In the Junior league, the baby Bolts are lingering at the bottom of the conference and will miss the playoffs this season.