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Lightning strike quick, topple Flyers

Jan 16, 2009 - 5:21 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- The Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday showed they have the ability to score quickly.

Defenseman Andrej Meszaros, Martin St. Louis and Ryan Craig tallied in just over a two-minute span late in the second period as the Lightning skated to a 4-1 triumph over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Captain Vincent Lecavalier converted a penalty shot with 7:26 remaining in the third to seal the win for Tampa Bay, which improved to 3-5-4 in its last 12 home games.

Former Flyer Mark Recchi notched two assists to give him 1,409 career points, tying him with Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk for 17th place on the all-time list.

"It was a good effort. I thought one through 21 or 22 who played tonight contributed," Tampa Bay interim coach Rick Tocchet said. "Obviously, Vinny Lecavalier played a great game and Marty (St. Louis) and all the way down the line, but I thought the (Matt) Pettingers, the Craigs, the (Adam) Halls, those guys did a (heck) of a job for us.

"When you love guys and play with them (and) when you win, usually people stay together, and that's a good point. I think that's a good rallying cry. Whatever it takes to get guys playing the same way, inspiration or whatever."

Mike Smith turned aside 31 shots for the Lightning, who improved to 3-1-0 in their last four overall. The lone loss was a 7-1 rout at the hands of the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.

"We can't dwell on a game like that. The best teams in the league have letdowns," Smith said. "You don't like to get thumped like we did. I thought after the first five to six minutes, we controlled the game."

"We can't lose two in a row," St. Louis added. "If we lose one, we've got to get right back on some kind of streak. We did that again tonight."

Joffrey Lupul scored a power-play goal and Martin Biron made 40 saves for Philadelphia, which lost its second straight game in regulation and fell to 2-2-2 in its last six contests.

"I think that was the worst two games I've played in a while," Flyers captain Mike Richards said. "We're just getting outworked right now. I don't know if our confidence was too high where it crossed into cocky. We really just got outworked the last two games. It's kind of embarrassing how much they outworked us."

"I've seen Tampa play very well lately. They had a lot of desperation in their game tonight," Philadelphia coach John Stevens said. "They were coming home off a long trip, they wanted to get a win for their fans and we didn't match their level of desperation, and the result was indicative of that."

After Lupul opened the scoring 5:21 into the second period, St. Louis leveled the contest nearly 9 1/2 minutes later after receiving a brilliant pass from rookie Steven Stamkos.

The top overall pick of the 2008 draft accepted a feed in the left faceoff circle from Recchi and quickly sent a cross-slot pass to St. Louis, who unleashed a shot past Biron for his 17th goal of the season.

Meszaros gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 advantage just 25 seconds later. After getting a cross-slot pass from Ryan Malone in the right circle, the blue-liner blasted the puck past Biron for his second tally.

Craig doubled the lead 98 seconds afterward, fending off defenseman Randy Jones and gathering the puck on the doorstep before slipping it past Biron.

"We've got to play some hockey like we know we can play," Biron said. "We know it, we talked about it after the first period. But it's not a switch you can turn on and off."

Lecavalier added the exclamation point by tucking the puck between the pads of Biron on his penalty-shot attempt for his team-leading 18th tally of the season. It was the fourth career successful penalty shot for the All-Star.

"I should react, that's probably the smartest thing to do," Lecavalier said of his approach. "When I went to my backhand, I saw him kind of really spread out and kind of reaching for it because he thought I was going to go high, so that's why I went between his legs."

Lupul gave the Flyers a brief 1-0 advantage early in the middle session. After gaining possession in the left circle, Lupul put a backhander Smith and just under the crossbar for his 15th goal of the season and second in as many games.