LIGHTNING 7, LEAFS 2: Martin St. Louis sets a team record for points in a season and Tampa Bay scores four in the first.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published March 24, 2004
[Getty Images]
Fredrik Modin, left, races Toronto's Callie Johansson for the puck. Modin had a goal and two assists in the game.
TORONTO - The answer was short and sweet, but it showed exactly where Martin St. Louis' head was at Tuesday night.
The Lightning wing had three assists in Tampa Bay's 7-2 victory over the Maple Leafs in front of a sellout 19,452 at the Air Canada Centre; his 89 points and 47 road points set franchise records.
But St. Louis, who was tied on both counts with Brian Bradley, did not want to dwell on personal stuff.
"It's an honor to do that with a win," he said. "That's what makes it so special."
Especially such a resounding win in an arena where the Lightning had not won since January 2001 in coach John Tortorella's first victory.
Don't kid yourself, the Lightning needed that victory like Popeye needs spinach.
After losing four of five, and with two of its next three against the Devils and Senators, the team needed to feel good about itself. It did that with four first-period goals and two power-play goals in the game to bust a 1-for-19 streak.
Tampa Bay wrapped up its road schedule at a franchise-best 22-12-4-3, and its 99 points kept it one ahead of the Flyers in the East.
Fredrik Modin had a goal and two assists. Dave Andreychuk scored to move one goal from his 19th 20-goal season.
Cory Stillman had two assists. Vinny Lecavalier scored his 30th on a spin-o-rama that must have made goalie Ed Belfour dizzy, and Lightning goalie John Grahame was solid with 27 saves.
The concern: an unspecified upper-body injury to defenseman Darryl Sydor, who left the game in the first period. The team said he will be evaluated before Thursday's game with New Jersey.
"We've had some problems the past weeks, so this was the kind of game we needed right now," Modin said. "Hopefully it will get us back on the right track."
The Lightning forced the play from the opening faceoff.
"We wanted them to know we're here, we're not going to take any backward steps," Tortorella said. "We were going to play our game."
Modin's 27th goal 2:49 in came with four seconds left on a power play. Alexander Mogilny tied it at 5:29, also on the power play. But Tampa Bay, which had a 40-29 edge in shots, put its foot down.
Brad Lukowich scored 52 seconds later off St. Louis' pass. Ruslan Fedotenko did some dirty work in front of the net and scored with 6:31 left, and Brad Richards scored his 23rd with 17.3 seconds remaining off Stillman's perfect feed.
"We certainly didn't make it hard on them," Leafs captain Mats Sundin said. "We turned the puck over and made a lot of errors. Tampa Bay played a good game but we were off."
Red flags went up when Nik Antropov made it 4-2 1:23 into the second on a two-on-one. As Tortorella said, "That was a bit of a blueprint from Boston," against which the Lightning fell 5-4 after leading 3-0. "But the guys kept control of themselves. We responded very well there."
Andreychuk responded with 1:48 left in the second with his 632nd goal and league all-time-high 269th on the power play. Even Martin Cibak got into the act with his second goal and first in 58 games to end the scoring.
"We've struggled the past few games," said St. Louis, who has 35 goals and 54 assists. "But to beat Toronto in our last road game, it's a nice way to end it."
