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Lightning get measure of revenge, beat Senators 5-2

Staff photo by JASON BEHNKEN

Alex Tanguay celebrates with teammates after his third-period goal in Thursday night's game.

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By TONY FABRIZIO

afabrizio@tampatrib.com

Published: October 30, 2009

Updated: 10/30/2009 06:57 am

TAMPA - Maybe it was because they were well-rested and their opponents were playing on consecutive nights. Maybe they were mad.

Or maybe they've gotten that much better in two weeks.

Whatever the reason, the Lightning on Thursday night looked like a different team than the one that lost at Ottawa by six goals Oct. 15. Their 5-2 victory against the Senators at the St. Pete Times Forum was one of their best outings yet.

"I don't know if revenge is the right word," Coach Rick Tocchet said after his team improved 4-3-3 overall, 4-0-2 at home. "You just learn from situations you're put in. Obviously, it left a bad taste in our mouth."

The Lightning used an 11-day period in which they played only two games as an extended training camp, focusing on basics and new line combinations. They've obviously improved their chemistry.

"All teams are going to go through this where they're going to have a lot of practices, not many games, and then we're going to get our turn and have a lot of games," Tocchet said. "So this two weeks was really important to get our practices in kind make sure we understood where to go."

Center Steven Stamkos, looking more and more like an elite scorer, scored two power-play goals and added an assist for a three-point night that pushed him into a tie with Marty St. Louis for the team lead in points with 14.

Stamkos' second goal, midway through the third period, came on a slick stick-handling move in which he beat Chris Phillips.

Alex Tanguay, moved up to the second line with Stamkos and Ryan Malone, scored his first goal of the season, and Malone got a wraparound goal in the second period for his eighth goal of the year.

Todd Fedoruk also scored after one of fast-rising defenseman David Hale's two assists. St. Louis got an assist to extend his franchise-record point streak to the first 10 games of the season.

Goalie Mike Smith, embarrassed in the 7-1 loss at Ottawa on Oct. 15, stopped 21 of 23 shots to push his record to 2-2-3. Tampa Bay was comfortably ahead 5-0 before Smith allowed third-period goals to Jarkko Ruutu and Alex Kovalev.

Everyone seemed relieved for Tanguay, who is expected to contribute goals.

"I was just happy to be on the ice for that one," Stamkos said. "Tangs has worked so hard, and to get rewarded finally was great."

Stamkos started the scoring, redirecting a shot by Vinny Lecavalier into the net off the skate of ex-Lightning Filip Kuba 7:20 in the game.

That power-play goal against the NHL's No. 1 penalty kill team set the tone for the night, because in the Oct. 15 meeting, Tampa Bay's power play went 0-for-6, and Ottawa scored two short-handed goals.

The game was played on Tampa Fights Cancer Night, and the Lightning may want to consider repeating the awareness program more frequently. They're 10-0-0 when playing for the cause.

There were fights of another kind, too. Tampa Bay's Zenon Konopka and Chris Neil traded punches and glancing blows in the second period, and Lightning Steve Downie and Ruutu got into it in the final minute.

The Senators were without goalie Pascal Leclaire, who left Wednesday night's game at Florida with the flu, but that wasn't supposed to help Tampa Bay. Brian Elliott was 2-0 with an 0.98 goals-against average against Tampa Bay. This time, he let five of 27 through.

Their schedule break complete, the Lightning are on a stretch of six games in 10 days. They host New Jersey on Saturday and play at Philadelphia on Monday, Toronto on Tuesday, Ottawa on Thursday and Montreal on Nov. 7.

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