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Lightning-Islanders Preview

Dec 20, 2009 - 8:35 PM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

Tampa Bay (12-14-9) at New York (13-16-7), 7:00 p.m. EDT

Looking to pull out of a downward spiral, the Tampa Bay Lightning won their first road game in nearly a month. Ending a six-game trip with another contest against the lowly New York Islanders could help them continue to do so.

The Lightning try to win consecutive games for the first time in six weeks when they face the Islanders on Monday night.

Tampa Bay (12-14-9) ended a season-high six-game slide Friday, winning 6-3 over St. Louis after starting its trip with four losses. The Lightning have gone 2-8-2 in their last 12 - the other victory during the stretch coming by a 4-0 score over the Islanders at home Dec. 5.

The Lightning had lost seven straight on the road.

"It gives us a little bit of enjoyment," said center Jeff Halpern, who had two of Tampa Bay's season-high six goals Friday. "There's no real explanation for how we went from a team that was doing pretty well and was right in the thick of things to just falling off the face of the earth. It's a step in the right direction."

Steven Stamkos also scored twice Friday after recording one goal and one assist in the previous 10 games.

Despite that slump, Stamkos is among the NHL leaders with 20 goals and leads the Lightning with 33 points. He is three goals shy of his total as a rookie last season.

Stamkos has not had much success against the Islanders (13-16-7), with one assist in five games.

The Lightning, 5-10-5 on the road, dropped their last three visits to Nassau Coliseum while getting outscored 11-2.

The Islanders fell 3-0 to Montreal on Saturday, their second straight loss. Montreal did all of its scoring on power plays, while New York came up empty on six chances with the man advantage.

"Obviously, they were real ahead of us in special teams," coach Scott Gordon said. "It's not so much bad penalties as much as it execution of power play and penalty kill. Right now, everything is going against us."

The Islanders went 0 for 17 on the power play in the last four games after going 5 of 14 in the previous three contests.

They are also having trouble in goal, with Dwayne Roloson likely to get the start Monday after Martin Biron lost his fifth consecutive start Saturday.

Biron is 2-10-2 with a 3.30 goals-against average and a shutout.

Roloson has gone 11-6-5 with a 2.91 GAA in 22 games, but lost his last start Thursday when he made 17 saves in a 5-2 defeat to the New York Rangers.

He stopped 21 shots in the last meeting with Tampa Bay on Dec. 5.