B5

The Associated Press

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

TAMPA, Fla - Steven Stamkos had two power-play goals and an assist to help the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Thursday night.

Enlarge Photo

AP

Ottawa Senators center Chris Kelly (22) gets all tied up with Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Andrej Meszaros (14) as they fight for the puck during NHL action Thursday night in Tampa, Fla. Lightning won the game, 5-2.

Todd Fedoruk, Ryan Malone and Alex Tanguay also scored for the Lightning, who are 4-0-2 at home.

Stamkos put Tampa Bay ahead 1-0 at 7:20 of the first when his redirection of Vincent Lecavalier’s shot appeared to go into the net off Ottawa defenceman Filip Kuba.

The second-year centre gave the Lightning a 4-0 lead at 7:09 of the third from the low right circle after a nifty stickhandling move.

Ottawa got third-period goals from Jarkko Ruutu and Alex Kovalev. The Senators were coming off a 4-3 win Wednesday night at Florida.

Tanguay stopped a personal 12- game goal drought, dating to April 4, just over 2 minutes after Stamkos’ second goal.

Fedoruk made it 2-0 on an in-close rebound goal at 4:34 of the second.

Malone’s wraparound goal extended Tampa Bay’s advantage to 3-0 with 5:12 left in the second.

After stopping a shot by Milan Michalek earlier in the third during a breakaway, Lightning goalie Mike Smith lost his shutout bid when Ruutu scored with 9:34 remaining. Kovalev cut the Ottawa deficit to 5-2 later in the period.

Tampa Bay’s Martin St. Louis played in his 700th NHL games and extended his franchise-record season-opening points streak to 10 games (11 assists, 14 points) with an assist. The NHL record is 51 games, set by Wayne Gretzky during the 1983-84 season.

St. Louis missed the net to the right on short-handed penalty shot midway through the second.

Caps 4 Thrashers 3

At Atlanta, Alex Ovechkin scored twice to add to his NHL-leading total, Semyon Varlamov stopped a penalty shot and the first-place Washington Capitals held on at the end to hand the Atlanta Thrashers their fourth straight loss, 4-3 on Thursday night.

Ovechkin didn’t get a chance to go against fellow Russian Ilya Kovalchuk.

Atlanta’s star sat out his first game since breaking his right foot last weekend.

The Capitals built a 3-0 lead and survived a wild finish.

Three goals were scored in the last 2:23, including an empty-netter by Washington’s Mike Knuble and Zach Bogosian’s second goal of the game for Atlanta just before the buzzer.