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Lecavalier lifts Lightning past Rangers

Feb 4, 2007 - 5:35 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Vincent Lecavalier was in the right place at the right time to make the New York Rangers pay for a big mistake.

Lecavalier snapped a third-period tie with his league-leading 33rd goal and defenseman Dan Boyle added a pair of assists for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who edged the Rangers, 3-2, for their fifth win in six games.

Sparked by Lecavalier, who has 11 goals in his last 13 contests, the Lightning scored twice on the power play in improving to 10-2-0 since January 7.

"We've had some real nail-biters and lots of games that have been close, especially on the road," Lecavalier said. "So we're kind of used to the upbeat intensity and getting a feel for how to react and play hard-nosed in a close game."

Lecavalier took advantage of a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty when he fired a slap shot from the right point that beat goaltender Henrik Lundqvist with 8:07 to go in the third. The tally tied him with fellow All-Star Alex Ovechkin of Washington for the league lead.

"We just want to keep playing well and continue this roll," Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella said. "We've had great games from a lot of individuals, and (Johan) Holmqvist made some key saves as we begun to take the game over."

"It's a game we could have won, but they have so much firepower, and we have to adjust to that," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "The fact of the matter is that we can't give them eight minutes of separation and make a couple of errors on the power plays. You can't give that team that kind of opportunity."

Brad Richards gave the Lightning a 2-1 advantage during a power play with 5:54 left in the second, unleashing a slapper from the left faceoff circle that found the top right corner of the net for his 19th goal.

"We basically are just keeping things simple and we haven't panicked at any time," Richards said. "It seems like we just come together when we need to and everybody supports one another and gets the job done."

"The penalty-killers worked really hard for us tonight, but they simply made a couple of errors," Rangers All-Star left wing Brendan Shanahan said. "We can't afford that."

New York tied it with 77 seconds remaining in the middle session, when Jaromir Jagr set up Michael Nylander for a wrist shot from the left circle that beat netminder Johan Holmqvist to the glove side.

The Rangers opened the scoring at 7:31 of the opening period, when Shanahan's shot from the right corner hit Holmqvist in the shoulder. The puck dropped into the crease, where Jason Krog knocked it into the net for his third goal of the season.

"I think we really battled," Shanahan said. "I thought they certainly had a lot of jump tonight and had a good game plan. They have a lot of depth and just put a lot of pressure on our defense, and we just need to work better on reacting to that."

Defenseman Paul Ranger tied it at 6:51 of the second period with a backhander from the high slot that slid between Lundqvist's pads for his third of the campaign.

Former Ranger Holmqvist made 24 saves for the Lightning, who reached the .500 mark at home (13-13-0).

"Right now, we just are getting superior play from our front-line players like Vinny and (Martin St. Louis), and every night, Johan just comes up big," Richards said. "When you have those three doing their thing, it makes it tough."

Lundqvist stopped 38 shots for New York, which has lost four of six.

"The Lightning played a very good game tonight against us and showed a lot of speed, balance and a really strong power play," Lundqvist said. "We just flat out game them too many opportunities on the power play, and that's why they won the game."