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Lecavalier, St. Louis have career nights as Lightning roll

Dec 8, 2006 - 3:56 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis picked the perfect time to display their All-Star form.

Lecavalier and St. Louis set career highs with five points apiece as the Tampa Bay Lightning halted a four-game losing streak with an 8-0 drubbing of the Atlanta Thrashers.

All-Stars in 2003, Lecavalier and St. Louis combined for four goals and six assists as the Lightning fell one tally short of the franchise mark. Tampa Bay scored nine times in a shutout victory over Pittsburgh on November 8, 2003.

"To be honest, I didn't feel comfortable until we scored that sixth goal," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "I know what kind of talent (the Thrashers) have and I've watched them score in a bunch, so it was nice that we kept our concentration up the entire way."

"We just didn't show up," Atlanta coach Bob Hartley said. "You don't need to be a specialist to figure that out. ... We got spanked."

The Lightning had netted eight goals two previous times during their existence - both against the Thrashers.

Lecavalier registered a natural hat trick, his fourth career three-goal effort, to stake Tampa Bay to a 3-0 lead. St. Louis assisted on all three tallies, as well as Brad Richards' power-play goal with five minutes to go in the second period that opened a 5-0 bulge.

"Anytime you win big like this, it gives you an edge, some momentum to build from," Lecavalier said. "Now we have to continue to play with the same concentration and aggression."

The Hart and Art Ross Trophy winner in Tampa Bay's Stanley Cup championship season of 2003-04, St. Louis scored while shorthanded 6 1/2 minutes into the third to make it 7-0. Lecavalier, who also helped set up Richards' tally, recorded the lone assist on the goal.

"This was obviously a total team effort and we know we are capable of that every night," St. Louis said. "We got the power play going against a very hot team and everything took off from there. It was nice to get back on the winning track."

Marc Denis benefited from the outburst, making 21 saves to record his first shutout of the season. In his first campaign with the Lightning, Denis stopped four shots in the opening period, 10 in the second and seven in the third to seal his 16th career blanking.

"It is real nice to come away with this one. We've been struggling, obviously, but we've also had some close games where we just didn't come away with the win," said Denis, who notched his 100th career victory. "I feel better now that I got this win and we can get going again."

Nikita Alexeev, defenseman Dan Boyle and Ruslan Fedotenko also scored for the Lightning, who improved to 4-1 against the Thrashers this season. Boyle's tally was his second point of the game, tying him with Roman Hamrlik for 10th place on the franchise list with 185.

"I'm happy for a lot of our guys because good things happened tonight," Tortorella said. "We've been working hard and just not getting the results we wanted. Tonight, we got plenty."

"We played within our team concept and gained some momentum and confidence from the start," Lecavalier said. "We talked about our confidence between games and we just wanted to get something going tonight."

Kari Lehtonen yielded five goals on 30 shots before being pulled. Johan Hedberg came on and made five saves for Atlanta, which had its five-game winning streak snapped.

"You have to put this one behind you," said Lehtonen, who is tied for the league lead with four shutouts. "They deserve everything they worked for and they put it to us tonight."

"It was a pretty embarrassing loss, obviously," Atlanta captain Scott Mellanby said. "We just are going to have to wake up tomorrow and try to forget about it."

Lecavalier began his impressive performance with 28 seconds to go in the first period. After picking up a loose puck in the slot, he fired a wrist shot that beat Lehtonen to the stick side for a 1-0 lead.

After doubling the advantage with a one-timer while on the power play at 6:28 of the second, Lecavalier completed his hat trick with 7:46 remaining in the session. Defenseman Filip Kuba completed a pass from one blue line to the other, allowing Lecavalier to get ahead of a defender and slide a backhander between Lehtonen's pads.

"We've had some ups and downs, and you have to battle through them," Lecavalier said. "Certainly, you want to enjoy this moment and this night, but more so, we want to get going again."

With Tampa Bay already comfortably ahead, 6-0, St. Louis converted a cross-crease pass from Lecavalier during a 2-on-1 for his 17th tally at 6:30 of the third.