Agony of da feet ends, but not in a win

LONG BEFORE the puck dropped in the Wachovia Center, Peter Forsberg was having a good day.

It was just after the pregame morning practice, and he had an attitude that hasn't been there in a long time. He said he was looking forward to the game, something about some slight adjustment in his right skate that had him thinking maybe the end to his long battle with imbalance was near.

Outside the locker room, Frank Tursi, the foot doctor who has been working with Forsberg, was all smiles. He said nothing, except that it was a good day.

And last night it showed.

From his first shift in the game it was easy to see that Forsberg was feeling stable and confident, making cuts and moves, evading checkers, going to the net off the wall on his right inside edge, something that would have sent him tumbling to the ice earlier this season.

It was what general manager Paul Holmgren said people would see when Forsberg started feeling good again, when he said Monday that he would rather wait to fix his skate problems than talk about trading the best player.

"We're making progress in the skate and it was 10 times better than it has been all year," Forsberg said.

It would have been a much better night if the Flyers had come away with a win. But they didn't, losing 4-3 in a shootout to the Tampa Bay Lightning, their 11th consecutive winless effort in the Center since Nov. 24.

Forsberg scored what could have been a game-winner early in the third, but Tampa Bay stormed back at the halfway point of the period, overpowering the Flyers for a 3-minute stretch until Vincent Lecavalier tipped a puck past Robert Esche with 8:54 to play.

Lecavalier scored again in the shootout for the winner. Brad Richards also scored for the Lightning while both Simon Gagne and Forsberg were stopped by Johan Holmqvist.

It was a tough way to end what was a solid effort and possibly a breakthrough night for Forsberg.

"I have to say I'm happy with the way it went today," he said. "I was skating, I was moving, I had balance on the ice . . . I've been horrible all year, so it was fun to play at least one good game. We just have to keep working. Like I said earlier this week we had sort of a clue why [his right foot was moving in his skate] and maybe we can correct it.

"The whole team too, it was fun to play. We're playing better lately. We've been close, and up, in third periods . . . Unfortunately we didn't get away with a win, but it's going in the right direction."

With the Flyers playing better and more confidently, the pace of the game was quick and entertaining.

After a scoreless first period, the Flyers and Tampa Bay each scored twice. Both Lightning goals were power-play goals and both Flyers goals were shorthanded.

Tampa scored first on a five-on-three advantage in the second period. Jeff Carter was in for a hook and Derian Hatcher for elbowing. Dan Boyle got the puck on net and Esche stopped it, but the rebound landed right where Martin St. Louis could get to it for the easy goal.

Mike Richards evened things up on the second part of the power play, scoring shorthanded by blasting a shot that might have been deflected up but beat Holmqvist tying the game at 1-1.

Minutes later while killing a cross-check call on Forsberg, R.J. Umberger got in ahead of the play and was hooked from behind, drawing a delayed call. Esche skated to the bench and Gagne took the ice. He got the puck on the wall in deep and turned in time to see Carter going to the net. Carter tipped the centering pass in, and the Flyers took a brief, 2-1 lead with their second shorthanded goal.

"[Gagne] made a great play," Carter said. "He just kind of ran out of options and spun and fired. I like those ones, they're easy."

But with the seconds ticking off the Forsberg penalty, Ruslan Fedotenko blasted a shot that blew past Esche, knotting the game at 2.

Forsberg scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, tipping the puck out of Holmqvist's glove as he was about to catch it. The puck dropped and bounced in off Tampa Bay's Nolan Pratt.

The 3-2 lead didn't last. Tampa stormed the Flyers in their end for 3 full minutes. The Flyers couldn't clear the zone and repeatedly turned the puck over. Finally Lecavalier tipped one past Esche, tying the game again and eventually sending it into overtime.

While no one was happy with another loss, the game was seen as progress by coach John Stevens, especially when it came to Forsberg.

"He did a lot of good things," Stevens said. "He had the puck more tonight than he has probably all year. He had the ability to get up ice, elude people and make a lot of plays. Hopefully that was a sign that we're getting his skate problem corrected.

"I think that we've been playing well the last three or four games. We are just expecting a consistent, energized effort. I thought we had that tonight. We didn't get it done in the shootout, but I certainly like a lot of the things we are doing right now." *