Bolts end skid, blast Blues

By self definition, the Lightning offense exploded on Friday night.

Stuck in the middle of a three-week long scoring drought, Tampa Bay lit up the St. Louis Blues for a 6-3 victory. The six goals exceeded the Lightning's entire output in the first four games of a six-game road trip that concludes Monday at the New York Islanders.

Jeff Halpern scored twice for his 10th career multi-goal game, and Vinny Lecavalier and Alex Tanguay each had a pair of assists. Marty St. Louis scored once and added two assists, while second-year center Steven Stamkos notched a pair of goals to give him 20 on the season. Kurtis Foster also scored for the Lightning, who won for the first time since Dec. 5.

For Tampa Bay, it turned into a night of answers, and not just because of the recent woes the team has suffered. The Lightning also seemed to have an answer for whatever St. Louis tried to throw at them, starting in the first period.

The Blues, who were in a 5-for-53 drought on the power play going into the game, scored on their first opportunity with the man advantage as Brad Winchester got them on the board with his first goal of the season at 10:04.

But before things could settle down, the Lightning answered right back 33 seconds later following a nice play by Tanguay, who pushed the puck past a Blues defenseman to spring a 2-on-1 break that was finished by St. Louis.

"I thought a trademark of this team early in the year was our resiliency and how we bounced back within games and after losses," Halpern said. "So to go through a stretch like we have for 10 or 11 games, I wouldn't say we laid down, but we didn't show enough fight as a team and I think we did tonight. But this is just one win and we are a long way from where we want to be."

Tampa Bay picked up the pace to start the second period, a one-timer from the left circle by Stamkos coming 36 seconds in just as a power play had expired for a 2-1 lead.

That's when things started to get testy, Lecavalier picked up his second penalty of the night after he took exception to a hit by David Backes. The play seemed to wake up the Lightning, who started to play with more energy.

Tampa Bay took a 3-1 lead as Foster blistered a shot from the right point that zipped between the leaping legs of Blair Jones in front and found its way inside the near post and past a screened Chris Mason at 6:24.

"We played with a lot of passion, I felt we played a physical game," Lecavalier said. "You see David Hale make a couple of big hits, it gets you going. I felt we were first on the puck all night. This was a huge game for our team. I don't think we are going to get overly excited about one win, but we are happy to get the two points."

The Blues built momentum late in the second - which a missed Lecavalier breakaway chance with 52 seconds left failed to disrupt - and drew within one at 3:58 of the third period on a T.J. Oshie goal.

But as with the first goal of the game, Tampa Bay answered right back as Tanguay blocked a clear attempt with his skate to Lecavalier, who kicked a pass to Halpern who scored into the vacated net to regain the two-goal lead 14 seconds later. Halpern struck again to regain the two-goal advantage - Keith Tkachuk scored on the power play at 9:03 - when he was at the left post to put in a Ryan Malone wraparound chance with 8:45 left in the game.

"We've had games where we would have something bad happen and we would get down and couldn't recover," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. "Tonight we were able to not get rattled and answered them every time and hopefully that's a good sign for this team moving forward."