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BRANT JAMESLIGHTNING 4, BRUINS 2: Tampa Bay rediscovers its scoring touch after a mostly rough stint on the road.
TAMPA - Everyone needs an explanation, or at least a theory, when things begin to fail. When the Lightning's season-opening burst faded into a goal-scoring slump and mounting losses, schedule quirks made a fine culprit.
The same schedule that gave the Lightning 11 home dates in the first 16 games and produced an 11-2-2-1 start supposedly made the team complacent. A protracted road swing was going to be the remedy. The team would simplify things, play the concept not the crowd, and go about winning another Southeast title.
But things kept getting worse. Managing just 26 goals, three wins and two ties in the next 15 games, the Lightning dropped eight points behind the upstart Atlanta Thrashers in the division.
Frustrated and amazed at their inability to find a timely bounce or lucky break, players turned back to the schedule and the beginning of a five-game homestand for a fresh start.
A 4-2 victory over Boston on Saturday before an announced 19,942 at the St. Pete Times Forum was a good start. Even better was that the puck started finding the Lightning's scorers. They in turn started finding the net, in unusual ways, even, as Martin St. Louis scored twice short-handed and Vinny Lecavalier added a man-down goal to set a team record.
"It feels like the past couple of games kind of built up toward this end," said Fredrik Modin, who had two assists. "It was a matter of time until we got our release."
One game doesn't necessarily solve every problem, but four of the Lightning's top five scorers, all of whom had slumped, earned a point as Brad Richards added a late goal to seal Tampa Bay's first win in four games.
Tampa Bay improved to 15-12-5-1, pulled within six points of Atlanta and broke a three-game home losing streak.
"Tonight was very important to try and reestablish ourselves in the win column at home," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "I think what has let us down is our home play. If you're going to be where you want to be, you need to take care of business at home."
Former Lightning Rob Zamuner brought Boston within 3-1 with 2:01 left in the second period and Glen Murray made it 3-2 at 1:32 of the third, but John Grahame had 17 saves to beat his former team.
Lecavalier's offensive woes and occasional clashes with Tortorella were major stories during the slump. One of Lecavalier's most complete games recently might help solve both problems as he displayed the offensive creativity he prides himself on and the end-to-end play Tortorella demands.
A combination of both gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 18:05 of the first period when Lecavaliers started a short-handed break with St. Louis. Lecavalier was driven to the left of the goal and shot into the side of the net, but recovered behind goaltender Andrew Raycroft and flipped the puck in front.
St. Louis gloved down the deflected pass. His backhand shot was stopped, but Lecavalier gathered it again, froze Raycroft and scored his team-leading 12th goal of the season, second short-handed.
St. Louis got one of the bounces he had so missed to give the Lightning a 2-0 lead at 5:28 of the second when he ripped a bad clearance by Raycroft off defenseman Nick Boynton and into the net.
"Obviously, whenever you score a short-handed goal it's always a big momentum change," St. Louis said. "Vinny's goal was big. My second goal was a lucky bounce, but you never know. That's what we've been preaching, throw a puck on net and don't wait for the perfect goal ... we'll take anything we can get right now."
St. Louis' breakaway score at 16:55 left in the second gave Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead and set a team and individual record for short-handers in a game.
His 11th of the season and league-leading fourth a man down was a wrist shot after he skated onto a Modin clear along the boards that eluded Bruins center Brian Rolston and kicked toward the center of the ice. St. Louis' three short-handed points tied for second most in an NHL game. Keith Tkachuk had four in a game in 1995.