Apr 30, 2004 3 min read

MONTREAL (AP) – Brad Richards finished what Vincent Lecavalier started and the Tampa Bay Lightning swept their way to the conference finals for the first time. Richards scored his second straight game-winning goal in the second period and the Lightning beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 Thursday night. Tampa Bay handed the Canadiens their first series sweep since Buffalo did it in the second round in 1998.

The Lightning had never advanced past the second round in their first 11 NHL seasons, but now will have time off before facing either the Toronto Maple Leafs or Philadelphia Flyers with a trip to the Stanley Cup finals on the line.

Fredrik Modin scored into an empty net with 55.3 seconds remaining for the Lightning, who have won seven straight playoff games since losing Game 2 to the New York Islanders in the first round.

Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 27 shots, allowing only Niklas Sundstrom’s goal 5:46 in. Khabibulin, who has allowed nine goals in nine games, leads NHL goalies with four shutouts and a 0.99 goals-against-average in the playoffs.

Richards and Lecavalier, stars as juniors in Quebec, combined to make the Lightning just the fourth team to sweep the Canadiens in a best-of-seven series.

Lecavalier, who scored five goals in the first three games – including the tying goal with 16.5 seconds left in regulation in Game 3, assisted on Dan Boyle’s first goal of the playoffs to tie the game midway through the second.

Richards, who scored 1:05 into overtime in Tuesday’s 4-3 win, beat goalie Jose Theodore with a sensational backhand shot at 17:14 to silence the enthusiastic crowd.

Montreal didn’t have much left against the top-seeded Lightning after rallying from a 3-1 series deficit against Boston in the first round.

The Canadiens came out aggressively in the first period and caught an early break when Boyle fell down and turned over the puck on the play that led to Sundstrom’s goal.

Joe Juneau recovered the puck along the left boards and put a backhand pass across the ice to Sundstrom, who drove down the right side and flipped a backhand over Khabibulin’s right leg and into the net.

The Canadiens outshot Tampa Bay 11-8 in the period but lost left wing Richard Zednik to an apparent leg injury with 53 seconds remaining in the period.

Zednik, reunited on a line with Saku Koivu and Alex Kovalev, already had three shots when he put a pass from Kovalev off the crossbar before he was tackled from behind by Modin.

Modin was sent off for holding while Zednik lay on the ice and had to be helped off the ice by Kovalev. Zednik favored his left leg as he went to the dressing room.

The Lightning tied it on a power play 11:57 into the second when Lecavalier’s pass from the right corner struck Boyle’s leg and bounced past Theodore.

Richards got his fourth goal of the playoffs at 17:14 on a give-and-go with Dimitry Afanasenkov.