For the second time in less than two weeks, the Tampa Bay Lightning managed to beat Marty St. Louis and the New York Rangers. At Amalie Arena on Wednesday night, Ryan Callahan and Steven Stamkos led their squad to a 4-3 victory. The win moves Tampa’s record to 15-6-2, which puts them squarely in second place in the Atlantic Division.
While the final score looks close, the Bolts managed to jump out to and maintain a possession advantage on Thursday. As shown by the following chart, Tampa took control of the even-strength game early and didn’t really let up.
Score effects played a small role in the third period, but the advantage remained.
The Lightning jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 5:25 into the first period when Steven Stamkos ripped his 15th goal of the year (!) past Henrik Lundqvist. The power play goal, assisted by Valtteri Filppula and Ryan Callahan, was a thing of beauty. The Lightning captain picked his spot and made no mistake. You could practice every day for the rest of your life and never manage to shoot the puck like Stamkos did on that goal.
Mats Zuccarello took advantage of an egregious giveaway by Andrej Sustr less than four minutes later to knot things up at one. Only two minutes after that, former Bolt Dan Boyle scored his first of the year on a power play to put the Rangers up 2-1. The Lightning were behind.
That was until Ryan Callahan, the Rangers’s former captain, scored his first of two goals on the night. At 17:34 of the first frame, and with his team on the power play, Callahan scored his ninth of the year; Jason Garrison and Steven Stamkos were credited with assists.
Callahan scored again midway through the second period, this time with help from Stamkos and Alex Killorn, to put the Bolts up 3-2. A great Stamkos feed found Callahan in the slot, and from there number-24 made no mistake. He popped the puck past Lundqvist for his second goal and third point of the night. Does he enjoy playing against his former team, or what?
Clinging to a one-goal lead heading into the third period, Tampa was in desperate need of insurance. They got it in the form of a Nikita Kucherov goal. The ‘kid line’ teamed up once again, as Kucherov’s eighth of the year was assisted by Tyler Johnson and Matt Carle. That gave the Bolts their 4-2 lead, the lead they wouldn’t relinquish. A Rick Nash goal with about seven minutes left on the clock wasn’t enough to salvage anything for New York. The Lightning walked out of Amalie with a solid 4-3 win.
Before signing off, I just wanted to give a big shout-out to the thousands who were in attendance at Amalie. The response you gave to Marty St. Louis was special. You booed him when he touched the puck, but you also took time to give him a standing ovation when his video tribute was playing. While there were certainly mixed emotions in the building, nothing can take away from the fact that Marty is the greatest player to ever suit up in a Lightning jersey. He deserved that ovation.
Happy Thanksgiving! As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter. 
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