Injury slowed down Stamkos

Steven Stamkos ended his six-game goal-less drought Friday, but Lightning coach Guy Boucher indicated there may have been a reason for Stamkos picking up just one point in the previous six games.

"We never said it, but he was injured,'' Boucher said when asked about Stamkos' second stretch this season of six games without a goal. "Some parts of the body ... it's a lot better now but it was really annoying for a while.''

Boucher would not specify what the injury was or when it occurred. But during the second period against Boston on Dec. 28, Stamkos fired a one-timer on the power play and looked to tweak something in his side. After the shot attempt, Stamkos looked to be uncomfortable, stretching his side before heading to the bench.

Stamkos didn't miss a shift during the game and has played in every game since. In the next game Dec. 20, Stamkos tied a career high with a four-point night on two goals and two assists. That was his last goal until he fired a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle for his 32nd goal of the season, and league-leading 14th on the power play, at 5:06 of the first period. Stamkos also pulled into a tie with Sidney Crosby for the league lead in goals.

With a second-period assist on a Marty St. Louis goal, Stamkos also picked up his 200th career point in his 206th career game.

When asked previously about the play in the game against Boston last month, Stamkos downplayed the incident and did not use it as an excuse for his play.

New mask

G Dwayne Roloson debuted his new Lightning mask Friday, which features Thor, the God of Thunder and Lightning, with silver wings along the sides along with Thor's hammer striking down on the back plate of the mask. The mask was designed by Jesse Acciacca of Jesse's Custom Design with the comment from Acciacca on the color scheme: "I tried to get away from most of the paint styles used on other goalies that have played for Tampa. All blue with lightning and some characters.''

In his Tampa Bay debut Jan. 4, Roloson wore his New York Islanders mask before switching to a plain white mask with Lightning stickers adorning various parts of it.

Pictures of the mask can be viewed online at http://ingoalmag.com/masks/.

Roloson ditched the mask during a television timeout in the first period after giving up three goals, reverting to the plain mask. He gave up a short-handed goal coming out of the break that ended his night after allowing four goals on nine shots through 15:54 of the first.

Kick start

LW Simon Gagne found his scoring touch Wednesday, converting a breakaway chance late in the second period. The goal was just the fourth of the season for the former 40-goal scorer. While he said the victory against Washington was the only thing that mattered, finding the back of the net was somewhat satisfying.

"It's a good feeling, and it definitely helps to take a big monkey off my back and I felt a lot better after that,'' he said. "But the team has been playing well since the start of the season, and in my case, the points aren't coming but I think I'm playing my game and getting scoring chances every game. For whatever reason sometimes you have those types of stretches in the season where you feel like nothing wants to go in.''

That was again the case Friday when Gagne had an open net from the left post, but was robbed on a glove save by Martin Brodeur late in the first period.

Erik Erlendsson