Ranger Maintains Scoring Touch

RALEIGH, N.C. - Lightning D Paul Ranger picked up Friday where he left off before missing a game with a sore shoulder: He scored another goal against the Hurricanes.

That gave Ranger five for the season and four in his past five games. And the one game he didn't score a goal during his past five, he played a career-high 30:00 against the Thrashers.

His goal Friday came 14:03 into the first period and tied the game at 1. It wasn't his prettiest effort - he basically threw it toward the goal from the blue line, and G Cam Ward couldn't handle it - but it gave Ranger a career high with five in 21 games.

Even after missing a game Wednesday because of his shoulder, Ranger went into Friday's contest ranked eighth among NHL defensemen with 14 points. He's already more than halfway to his career high in points, 28 (four goals, 24 assists), set last season in 72 games.

BULLETIN BOARD MATERIAL: As much as the Lightning tried to play it off Friday morning, someone must have taken offense to comments made by Hurricanes D Tim Gleason in the Raleigh News & Observer.

A copy of the story was taped to the Lightning locker room bulletin board, with Gleason's quote highlighted in bright yellow:

"It's just shutting down those two or three guys Vinny Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis," he said. "If we shut down those two or three guys, they got nothing."

Coach John Tortorella's response to Gleason's comment Friday morning was somewhat incongruous.

"That's between you and Gleason," he said. "We handle that internally."

The inflammatory quote didn't stay taped up long; veteran D Brad Lukowich took it down shortly after reporters were admitted to the dressing room. C Brad Richards, never one to overreact, put the remark in perspective.

"I really don't care what they say," Richards said. "We're just trying to win a game."

NUTS AND BOLTS: D Dan Jancevski and C Andreas Karlsson were healthy scratches for Tampa Bay as Tortorella chose to keep the line of Chris Gratton, Mathieu Darche and Ryan Craig together. ... Tampa Bay's Jason Ward was active after spending one game as a healthy scratch. He centered the fourth line between Andre Roy and Nick Tarnasky. ... Carolina winger Erik Cole returned to the lineup after missing four games with a neck injury. He collected an assist in the first period on Eric Staal's 100th career goal. ... The Hurricanes improved to 1-6-0 when trailing after two periods. The Lightning fell to 8-2-1 when leading after two. ... Carolina was limited to a season-low 22 shots. It had only 10 through two periods. ... The teams combined to go 0-for-6 on the power play. Tampa Bay was 0-for-2. ... The Lightning fell to 1-9-1 when the opponent scores first. ... The Hurricanes ended their six-game losing streak to Tampa Bay and improved to 20-8-8 with one tie all-time at RBC Center against the Lightning.

Carter Gaddis