Lightning strike down Rangers 5-2

November 28, 1:29 AMTampa Bay Lightning ExaminerAlthea Pashman

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Steve Downie (9) prepares to put the puck past Rangers goalie
Henrik Lundqvist (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)

Kurtis Foster had two goals, Steven Stamkos opened the scoring with his team high 16th goal and Martin St. Louis handed out three helpers as the Lightning bolted the New York Rangers 5-1 in John Tortorella’s return in front of 17,608 fans at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Steve Downie and Paul Szczechura also scored for the Lightning and Mike Smith stopped 26 of 27 shots to pick up his 4th win on a night when the Bolts arguably played the best 60 minutes of hockey this season.

"We played our best 60 minutes as a team in a long time," St. Louis said. "I think everybody backed each other whenever it got physical and we played together as a whole in every facet."

“Yeah, a really good game. As good as they were I think that was our best 60-minutes hockey game we played all season. As a group, every five-man unit went out there and did what they were supposed to do and we limited their chances to a few. That’s what we have to do in every game or try to do. If we play like that we’re going to win a lot of hockey games,” said Lightning goalie Mike Smith after the game.

Tampa Bay opened the scoring at 6:42 of the first period as Steven Stamkos wrist shot beat Henrik Lundqvist. Martin St. Louis and Victor Hedman added the assists.

With Ales Kotalik in the penalty box for charging Lightning goalie Mike Smith, Kurtis Foster scored his 2nd goal of the season and first one on the night as he beat Lundqvist with a slap shot with 36 seconds remaining in the first period to put the Bolts up 2-0.

The Lightning was strong from the onset of the game, peppering Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist for the first minute before the Rangers even touched the puck. The Rangers didn’t get their first shot on net till the 2:56 mark when rookie Bobby Sanguinetti making his NHL debut fired off a wrist shot which Mike Smith gloved for the save.

"Smitty's played well for us," Lightning Coach Rick Tocchet said. "He's really squaring the puck, and when he's quiet, he's really hard to get around."

Steve Downie put the Lightning up 3-0 at 8:05 of the second period as he converted Martin St. Louis slick pass for the tip-in power-play goal.

Paul Szczechura scored his first goal on the season on a second-chance shot, after picking up the rebound from James Wright's initial shot at 12:25 increasing the Lightning’s lead to 4-0 and chasing Ranger goalie Henrik Lundqvist in favor of Steve Valiquette. Lundqvist allowed four goals on 22 shots faced.

Kurtis Foster scored his second goal of the night and third on the season off the face-off won by Zenon Konopka at 8:24 of the final period, putting the Lightning up 5-0. Foster’s two goals tied his career high for goals in a game, the last time coming on Nov. 19, 2005 as a member of the Minnesota Wild.

“Foster has done a nice job for us. He’s a very versatile guy. "We've wanted to keep him in the lineup," Tocchet said. "He had a couple of goals, but he made some defensive plays down in the zone, too."

Ryan Callahan's goal, his first in seven games, denied Mike Smith's shutout with 2:07 left.

The Rangers who own the top-ranked penalty-killing unit in the NHL gave up two power play goals on the night were coming off one of the their best games. “Coming from a game where I thought we played one of our better games against Florida, in all facets, this is probably our worst game we’ve played all year long,” said Coach John Tortorella.

"We were simply outplayed tonight, from the top line to the goaltender," said Tortorella.

"I'm not going to dissect the game tonight because we were outplayed and the best thing about tonight is we play tomorrow and we can push this one right out (of our minds). We stunk tonight! It was an embarrassing loss! Let's leave it at that."

As for the Lightning’s reaction towards the return of their former coach, Kurtis Foster said, “I don’t think it was much about Tortorella being in the building. I mean Vinny Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis and a couple of guys were with him, but there’s a lot of us who just weren’t happy with the game against Toronto. We came out flat and didn’t play the way we wanted to. You know we wanted to bring our ‘A’ game tonight as we said and I thought the guys worked hard and we got the win tonight.”

“He’s a guy that was here for a long time and had success and to see him on the other side was weird, but I think we definitely fed off of it,” said Martin St. Louis.

“It was really solid efforts from everybody. There was a lot of energy tonight. You could tell that there was a lot of bounce in a lot of guys’ steps,” said Tocchet.

The Lightning left Tampa Bay following the game heading to Dallas where they’ll face the Stars on Saturday night. Game time is 7:30 pm and will be shown on CW44 and broadcast on 620 WDAE

Post Game Notes:

• Martin St. Louis extended his point streak to six games with two goals and 10 points during that span.
• Steven Stamkos has two goals and six points in the previous three games.
• Mike Smith has a 3-0-1 record in his previous four home games with a .940 save percentage and a 1.71 goals-against average.
• Tampa Bay went 2-for-2 on the power play; the first time since November 5 at Ottawa they scored multiple power play goals.

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