St. Louis lifts Bolts past Leafs in OT, 3-2

Marty St. Louis' overtime goal may have saved more than a game on Thursday night.

Mired in another mini-slump and returning home from a shellacking on Tuesday, Tampa Bay rallied for a 3-2 victory against Toronto as St. Louis launched home a power-play goal with 9.8 seconds left in overtime.

Vinny Lecavalier assisted on all three Lightning goals, including Ryan Malone's power-play goal with 3:49 left in regulation to force overtime. Steven Stamkos had a goal and two assists to tie a career high with three points, and Antero Niittymaki stopped 20 shots.

"It's not devastation (for losing) but it's not 'Lord of the Rings,' either," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. "We've just got to find that happy medium.

"Confidence-wise for our team, we definitely needed this."

Positive results have been too few and far between of late. And in the muddled Eastern Conference picture, every point is crit ical. While the victory kept Tampa Bay in 13th place, it allowed the Lightning to keep pace in the playoff race.

"These are points you have to get," Lecavalier said. "Teams are winning all around us so we need every point we can get to get closer and closer to that eighth spot and stay there. That's our goal."

Thanks to St. Louis, that goal remains in sight.

"It's a huge win," St. Louis said. "I thought we stayed with it, we had some better moments than others, but I thought we battled. And when the game was on the line, I thought we made plays to get us back in the game and win the game.

"Sometimes, especially this time of year, it's all about results."

HEDMAN SCRATCHED: Rookie D Victor Hedman, the No..2 overall pick in the 2009 draft, was a healthy scratch after struggling recently. Since Jan..2, Hedman has one goal, two points and is a minus-6, but has seen his game dip considerably the past week.

"It won't be a long thing. He just needs to catch his breath a little bit," Tocchet said. "He's a 19-year-old playing 22 minutes a night for us, and when you don't dress other guys it's for other reasons. With him, it's not because he doesn't work or anything like that. He works. He just needs to catch his breath, the same thing we did with Stamkos last year."

THOMPSON IN, WRIGHT OUT: The Lightning claimed C Nate Thompson off waivers from the Islanders. Thompson, 25, did not arrive in town until after 6 p.m. and was a scratch. A sixth-round pick of Boston in 2003, Thompson has played in 86 NHL games, scoring three goals and 10 points mainly with the Islanders, who claimed him off waivers from Boston in 2008.

Rookie C James Wright - a surprise to make the team out of training camp - was returned to Vancouver of the Western Hockey League, where he played juniors. By sending Wright back to juniors, the Lightning do not have to pay him the remainder of his $570,000 salary this season, but he gains a year on his contract, which has two years remaining.

RANGER STILL ABSENT: While speculation earlier in the week suggested D Paul Ranger, out since Oct..23 for personal reasons, might return to the team this week, nothing appears imminent.

"We have nothing new to report this week on Paul Ranger's status," General Manager Brian Lawton said. "We will offer an update when available but feel it best to let Paul inform us when he is ready to return."

First Period-None. Penalties-Primeau, Tor (hooking), :56; Rosehill, Tor, major (fighting), 4:15; Walker, TB, major (fighting), 4:15; Mayers, Tor (slashing), 13:56; Orr, Tor, minor-major-misconduct (instigator, fighting), 13:56; Walker, TB, major (fighting), 13:56; Veilleux, TB (hooking), 17:00; Szczechura, TB (hooking), 19:25.

Second Period-1, Toronto, White 9 (Kessel, Gunnarsson), 7:05 (pp). 2, Tampa Bay, Stamkos 26 (Lecavalier, K.Foster), 11:46. Penalties-Meszaros, TB (cross-checking), 5:42; Kaberle, Tor (hooking), 9:41.

Third Period-3, Toronto, Stajan 15 (Hagman, Kulemin), 9:08 (pp). 4, Tampa Bay, Malone 21 (Lecavalier, Stamkos), 16:11 (pp). Penalties-Ohlund, TB (holding), :52; Kulemin, Tor (holding stick), 6:37; Smaby, TB (hooking), 6:37; Stamkos, TB (high-sticking), 8:12; Stamkos, TB (high-sticking), 9:21; Primeau, Tor (roughing), 14:30; Downie, TB (slashing), 14:30; Ponikarovsky, Tor (boarding), 15:44; Ponikarovsky, Tor (unsportsmanlike conduct), 16:11.

Overtime-5, Tampa Bay, St. Louis 13 (Stamkos, Lecavalier), 4:50 (pp). Penalties-Toronto bench, served by Blake (too many men), 4:16.

Shots on Goal-Toronto 4-8-7-3-22. Tampa Bay 7-7-15-3-32. Power-play opportunities-Toronto 2 of 6; Tampa Bay 2 of 7. Goalies-Toronto, Gustavsson 9-10-8 (32 shots-29 saves). Tampa Bay, Niittymaki 10-9-4 (22-20). A-13,691 (19,758).