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St. Louis Gives Lightning A Jolt For 6-4 Victory

Teammates celebrate with Martin St. Louis after his first-period goal in the Lightning's win Thursday night.

Tribune photo by JASON BEHNKEN

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON

eerlendsson@tampatrib.com

Published: February 12, 2009

Updated: 02/13/2009 06:32 am

TAMPA - The Lightning's slumping offense needed a jolt. Enter Marty St. Louis.

Tampa Bay's No. 1 spark plug led a four-goal, first-period outburst Thursday en route to a 6-4 victory against Toronto. St. Louis had a goal and three assists - all in the opening 20 minutes - to set a career high with four points in a period, which also ties the franchise mark done three other times. The three assists in the first period also tied a franchise record, a mark St. Louis has now reached three times.

"That first period is as good as I've seen any player in the league play," Lightning interim head coach Rick Tocchet said. "He definitely willed the team to win that game."

During a 1-4-1 slide in the past six games, Tampa Bay had scored a total of nine goals. In four of those games the Lightning were held to one goal. A big culprit has been the power play, which fizzled to the tune of 2-for-30.

But in the first period alone, Tampa Bay scored four goals in four minutes, 13 seconds, the second-quickest four-goal outburst in team history, bettered only by four goals in 3:02 set at Florida on Oct. 28, 2002. Of the four goals, two were scored with the man advantage, including Mark Recchi's goal with a two-man advantage, an area of concern of late. St. Louis scored during the remaining power-play time to cap the surge with 3:17 left in the period.

"When we don't score goals and we're losing games the way we have been, we have to respond," said St. Louis, who had just two points in the previous six games before Thursday. "If you play the way we did tonight, usually good things happen."

St. Louis had plenty of offensive help. Ryan Malone scored twice in the first period for his 17th and 18th goals of the season. And after Toronto cut the score to 4-3 after two periods, rookie and overall No. 1 pick Steven Stamkos fired a wrist shot past Curtis Joseph - who replaced Vesa Toskala in net for the Maple Leafs - for Tampa Bay's third power-play goal of the night 6:01 into the third. Vinny Lecavalier added his team-high 25th of the season with 7:32 left as Tampa Bay tied its season high for goals scored.

And it was St. Louis providing the jump start.

"Tonight Marty definitely had a different gear than everyone else out there," Malone said.

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835.

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