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#Marty1K: St. Louis, Bishop Push Lightning Past Rangers |
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On a day that saw Steven Stamkos walk into the Tampa Bay Times Forum without crutches or a boot, the Tampa Bay Lightning took it to the New York Rangers and grabbed a much-needed 5-0 victory. Celebrating Martin St. Louis’s first 1000 games in the NHL, the Lightning took control of the scoreboard early on and never let go. The win moves the team’s record to 15-8-1, and vaults Tampa into second place in the Eastern Conference.
Recent call-up Nikita Kucherov got the Lightning’s offensive parade started just 2:12 into the game when he scored his first career goal on his first career shot on his first career shift. Perched in the slot, he took a great feed from Teddy Purcell and snapped the puck past a surprised Henrik Lundqvist. The 2011 second round draft pick was visibly and rightfully excited.
Only 58 seconds later, Marty St. Louis scored his first of two goals on the night to extend the Lightning lead to 2-0. Valtteri Filppula tipped a Victor Hedman pass to a streaking St. Louis, who proceeded to skate in all alone and flick the puck past Lundqvist. It was a classic St. Louis goal, and one that gave the Lightning a key insurance marker.
While the Lightning did manage to score two goals in the opening frame, it was the Rangers who really controlled the play. They fired 17 shots at Ben Bishop in the first period, but he was there to stop every one. After a couple rough outings on the Western Conference road trip, Bishop has rebounded in a big way. He played a great game in Anaheim and followed it up with a magnificent 37 save shutout against the Rangers. Following Monday’s win, Bishop’s save percentage and goals-against average are a sparkly 0.931 and 2.08 respectively.
St. Louis scored his second of the game at the 3:12 mark of the second period with a shot that was nearly identical to the one that beat Lundqvist in the first. Sent in alone thanks to a Filppula feed for the second time, St. Louis made no mistake. His tenth marker of the season gave the Lightning a 3-0 lead.
It would have been easy for the Bolts to take their collective foot off the gas with a three goal lead, but they did the exact opposite. Over the course of the second period, the ice really tilted in favor of the Lightning. Following a number of great Tampa scoring opportunities, Teddy Purcell cashed in with his first of two on the night at the 16:52 mark of the middle frame.
At 4-0 through two periods, Monday’s game was, for all intents and purposes, over after 40 minutes of play. While the Rangers did manage to create a few opportunities in the third, Ben Bishop and the Lightning’s defense were equal to the task. New York couldn’t put the puck past the Lightning’s lanky tender.
Looking to get Marty the hat-trick on his big night, Lightning coach Jon Cooper elected to put number-26 out for the final moments of the third period. While he didn’t end up scoring, he did assist on Purcell’s second goal of the night and seventh of the season to cap a very impressive three point outing.
It’s easy to look at Monday’s game tape and say that the Bolts were far from perfect. If we’re being totally objective, the reality is that the Rangers were better than the Bolts for large portions of the contest. That being said, it was Tampa that converted on opportunities. It was Tampa that made the most of its chances. That, at the end of the day, is all that counts. An impressive 5-0 victory is in the books, and the Lightning can now look forward to their next game.
As always, thanks for reading.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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