PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Even Philadelphia's notoriously hostile

crowd didn't bother the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 24 shots, helping the Lightning

defeat the Flyers 4-1 on Thursday night and take a 2-1 lead in the

Eastern Conference finals.

Cory Stillman, Ruslan Fedotenko, Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards scored for Tampa Bay, which improved to 5-0 on the road in

the playoffs. The Flyers were 6-0 at home this postseason.

"This building is tough to play in. The fans are always yelling

at you," Lightning forward Martin St. Louis said. "But we keep it

simple on the road. We don't try to put on a show. We just battle

and try to limit the mistakes."

Game 4 is Saturday in Philadelphia.

The Lightning quickly rebounded from a 6-2 loss in Game 2,

scoring two goals in a span of 2:24 to take control in the first

period.

Robert Esche, who had been superb in the playoffs, failed to

catch one of the shots and let the other bounce off his glove.

The Flyers dominated the second period, but couldn't break

through the "Bulin Wall" as Khabibulin made 13 saves.

"Some shots I didn't see, but guys stepped up and blocked them

and they cleared a few rebounds," Khabibulin said. "That makes

life a lot easier for a goalie."

After Keith Primeau's goal cut it to 2-1 and energized the

sellout crowd in the opening minute of the third period, the

Lightning scored 43 seconds later to silence the fans.

"That goal took the air out of us and the building," Flyers

coach Ken Hitchcock said.

Tampa Bay has won six of seven against Philadelphia this year,

including all four meetings in the regular season, and nine of 10,

dating to last year.

Stillman gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with a wrist shot from

just outside the left circle that sailed under Esche's glove.

"There's no disguising it, it was a bad goal," Esche said.

Fedotenko, a former Flyer, made it 2-0 less than three minutes

later with a power-play goal. His slap shot hit Esche's glove and

trickled into the net.

Primeau scored his sixth playoff goal just 36 seconds into the

third period to cut the deficit in half. But Lecavalier quickly

answered with a breakaway goal.

"You want to get life from a goal, but they turn around and

score right away and that makes it tough," Flyers forward Mark Recchi said.

Richards put the game away with his sixth playoff goal almost

halfway through the third period.

After a physical third period Monday night in which the teams

combined for 25 penalties, both teams controlled their emotions

until a couple fights broke out with :04 remaining.

Primeau twice knocked Lightning defenseman Cory Sarich off his

feet with consecutive hard hits in the second period. Primeau then

picked up a loose puck and centered a pass to Radovan Somik, who

hit the post.

"We weren't as tenacious on the puck in the first period,"

Primeau said.

Early in the first period, some of the frenzied, orange-clad

fans began shouting, "Shut your yap" at Lightning coach John

Tortorella, who made the same comment to Hitchcock on Wednesday.

Tortorella was upset that Hitchcock yelled at Lightning players

in Game 2. An angry Hitchcock said his players are being slashed on

the backs of their legs, and he won't keep quiet about it.

"We have two quality teams here. Both teams are trying to get

to a bigger spot and the road is not big enough for both,"

Tortorella said.

Esche finished with 22 saves in his worst outing of the

playoffs. He stoned Fredrik Modin just over a minute into the game

with a glove save on a point-blank shot from the slot, but it was

one of the only highlights for the goalie.

Game notes

Flyers defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson left early in the first

period with a hand injury. The extent of the injury should be known

Friday. ... The Flyers have scored first in 11 of their 14 playoff

games. They are 0-3 when they don't score first. ... Fedotenko was

traded along with two second-round picks to Tampa Bay for the

fourth overall pick in the 2002 entry draft. The Flyers chose

defenseman Joni Pitkanen with the pick. Pitkanen was a healthy

scratch the last two games. ... Lightning defenseman Pavel Kubina

committed three penalties that led to power plays for Philadelphia.

... The Flyers were 0-for-5 on the power play.