The Lightning had a lot for which it needed to pay back the Senators, which is why Monday night's dominating 6-2 victory at the St. Pete Times Forum was so sweet.

"We wanted to go out and prove something, that we could go out there and compete with that team," center Tim Taylor said. "Tonight we proved to ourselves and other teams that we could compete at that level."

Tampa Bay was embarrassed in its two previous encounters with the league's No. 1 team, which toyed with the Lightning and outscored it 13-3.

But what really got under Tampa Bay's skin was Senators right wing Martin Havlat, who Taylor said kissed his fingers and pointed to the crowd after each of his two goals during Ottawa's 7-0 victory Jan. 14 in Ottawa.

Pure disrespect, Lightning players said, and it was discussed on the bus after the game. It remained a hot topic, and coach John Tortorella mentioned it in the locker room before the game.

"We discussed the past two beatings we've taken by this team," Tortorella said. "As a professional athlete, you can't accept that. You've got to figure out a way to use that as a motivation, and I thought most of the guys did that tonight."

"We remembered what they did," Taylor said. "They beat us so handily, and (Havlat) was doing that. It was just a little bit more motivation for us."

The rewards were numerous, though only a season-low crowd of 12,022 was on hand to watch the Lightning collect.

Tampa Bay snapped a three-game losing streak, earned its second victory in 10 games and moved within three points of the first-place Capitals in the Southeast.

The win also ended the Senators' 11-game unbeaten streak against Tampa Bay (10-0-1) that dated to March 2000.

Six Lightning players scored. Vinny Prospal, who has two goals and 10 assists in his past seven games, got his second goal in as many games and was plus-4.

Martin St. Louis scored his 22nd and had two assists. Vinny Lecavalier got his third goal in three games and became the first Lightning player to score at least 20 in four consecutive seasons. Fredrik Modin broke a nine-game drought, Nikita Alexeev scored his first and Dan Boyle had two assists and was plus-4.

The Lightning also got solid goaltending from John Grahame, who had 22 saves and got his first victory in his second start since being acquired from the Bruins.

It was the first time since Feb. 6 that a goalie other than Nikolai Khabibulin won for Tampa Bay, and the first time since March 17, 2001 that a goalie other than Khabibulin won at home.

Senators goalie Patrick Lalime was chased after allowing four goals on 24 shots in two periods. The switch did not do much good, as Brad Richards scored in the third on the first shot against Martin Prusek, and Lecavalier scored on the second to give the Lightning a 6-1 lead.

"We didn't do what we usually do with our work ethic," said Lalime, who had won four in a row, including three shutouts. "We took some shortcuts and they took advantage of it."

The Lightning created advantages.

The forwards were responsible defensively, allowing the defense to pinch. The team skated with energy and was physical. That paid off big-time when defenseman Cory Sarich knocked Shane Hnidy off the puck in the Ottawa zone, leading to Modin's goal.

A big play in the slot by defenseman Pavel Kubina helped kill a 1:35 five-on-three to preserve Tampa Bay's 3-1 second-period lead.

"It's awesome, what can I say?" Prospal said. "It was a huge win for us and nice to answer the humiliating loss we suffered in Ottawa."

"It was," Tortorella said, "good mental health for our team."