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Tampa Bay ends trip with 3-1 win over Canadiens

The Associated Press

In his last five games, which includes a relief appearance on Monday in Philadelphia, Niittymaki has stopped 151 of 158 shots while compiling a 2-0-2 record.

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 7, 2009

MONTREAL - Tampa Bay's French-Canadian stars enjoyed a little home cooking on Saturday, but it was the Lightning's goaltender who saved their bacon.

Quebec natives Alex Tanguay (goal, assist), Vinny Lecavalier (two assists) and Marty St. Louis (assist) all found the scoresheet in Tampa Bay's 3-1 victory against Montreal. Goaltender Antero Niittymaki, however, stole the show from the hometown heroes with a 36-save performance to allow the Lightning to finish a four-game road trip with a 2-1-1 record.

"It was tough to come into Canada and play in three tough buildings," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. "After that Philly game (a 6-2 loss on Monday), to come through Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, I thought the guys played really well."

The victory allowed Tampa Bay to jump into a playoff position, leapfrogging Montreal and Ottawa in the standings into seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

For Niittymaki, Saturday's showing was just another day at the office for the Finnish netminder of late. Although he entered the game with a career 1-8-1 record and 3.53 goals against average against the Canadiens, his recent play overcame whatever misfortunes he had against Montreal while playing with Philadelphia in past seasons.

In his last five games, which includes a relief appearance on Monday in Philadelphia, Niittymaki has stopped 151 of 158 shots for a .956 save percentage while compiling a 2-0-2 record and a 1.48 goals against average.

"Actually the last game (Thursday in Ottawa) and the first period tonight I wasn't seeing (the puck) all that well, but you make a couple of saves and you start to feel better and better and get back on track," said Niittymaki, who stopped 29 of 30 shots in the final two periods.

His biggest stop of the night came in the opening minute of the first period when he stretched out his right leg pad to rob Mike Cammelleri, who partially had his attempt disrupted by a back-checking St. Louis.

"He's moving so well inside his crease that it makes it difficult for a guy to beat him," Tanguay said. "And when you have a goalie that is hot like that, it's going to win you games. In the third we were a little sluggish and we didn't get the puck out of our zone too often and he made the saves and kept us in the game. Hopefully he keeps playing like that because it's certainly fun, we have a lot of confidence in him."

Native sons returning home to Montreal and putting on a show in front of family and friends is nothing new. Lecavalier and St. Louis seem to do it on a yearly basis. Now with Tanguay, who had the eventual game-winner with 46.3 seconds left in the first period, Tampa Bay's French connection runs three-deep in high-scoring talent.

"Before the game even starts and you hear the fans start to get loud, you get chills listening to that," said Lecavalier, who has a 32 points in 40 career games against Montreal. "I think all the guys who are from here really enjoy coming into this building and playing in front of this crowd."

Add Tanguay to that list, as well, especially after spending the previous two seasons playing for the Canadiens. He enjoyed a warm reception from the crowd when he was introduced and celebrated his first-ever goal against Montreal in eight career games when he redirected a cross-ice pass from Ryan Malone while streaking to the net down the right wing side.

"I got a couple of bounces and it's always nice to have that to help your team out, especially in front of friends and family," Tanguay said. "Having played here last year certainly makes it that much more enjoyable, but I've been in the league a long time, I know it's one game and it's early in the season, for us this game was about getting inside the eighth spot and be inward looking toward the playoffs as opposed to being on the outside looking in.

"So it was fun to win that game."

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