Tampa Bay Lightning 3, Edmonton Oilers 2 FINAL

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) _ Vincent Lecavalier had a lot of fun at the Edmonton Oilers' expense.

Lecavalier scored a goal and added an assist to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 victory over the Oilers on Thursday night.

``Playing here was a lot of fun,'' Lecavalier said. ``Right off the bat there were people carrying the puck up and down the ice. It really gets you in the game. It makes it fun.''

Brad Richards and Pavel Kubina also scored for Tampa Bay. Radek Dvorak and Brad Isbister both had a goal and an assist for Edmonton.

Tampa Bay took a 3-1 lead with a two-goal second period.

``We honestly felt we could come back,'' Isbister said. ``We went out with that in mind. But we can't wait until the third period. It's a difficult thing to come back two goals in the third period.''

Lecavalier picked up a lose puck in front of the net midway through the second and slid a backhand shot past Tommy Salo, who had three shutouts in his previous eight games.

The goal, Lecavalier's 14th, broke a 1-1 tie. Earlier, he assisted on Kubina's goal.

Then, with Edmonton enforcer Georges Laraque about to be penalized for roughing Martin Cibak, Richards fired a shot past Salo with 2:34 left.

Dvorak made it interesting midway through the third when he tipped in a goal-mouth pass from Isbister to pull the Oilers to 3-2. The goal, Dvorak's eighth, came at 9:49.

Isbister scored on the Oilers' first shot, beating goalie John Grahame just 29 seconds into the contest.

But the Lightning tied it less than four minutes later on Kubina's goal. Kubina came in alone from the blue line to beat Salo.

The Oilers played four of the last six minutes of the first short-handed when Igor Ulanov was sent off for a double-minor for high-sticking Martin St. Louis. But the Lightning managed just one shot on goal before Fredrick Modin was sent off for slashing.

``It was one of the dumbest games of the year by far,'' Oilers forward Ethan Moreau said. ``It was ridiculous. It is frustrating, but we can control our own destiny and right the ship.''