• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

St. Louis' goal in OT lifts Lightning past Thrashers

Feb 23, 2007 - 5:38 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- With one swing of Martin St. Louis' stick, the Tampa Bay Lightning took over first place in the Southeast Division.

St. Louis scored 3:44 into overtime and Brad Richards added a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who posted their fifth win in six games, a 5-4 triumph over the Atlanta Thrashers.

Rallying from an early two-goal deficit, the Lightning improved 16-3-1 in their last 20 contests and moved one point ahead of the Thrashers, who have dropped eight of 10, in the Southeast.

"That's been the story with our club this year," Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella said. "I don't think they've ever given up, even when we were four or five games under .500. It is an important time to win a game like this, and they've done it all year long."

"It was nice to get a point on them, and we still have a game in hand, but it was two good teams going at it tonight," St. Louis said. "It was a fun game to play and I'm sure it was a fun game to watch."

St. Louis scored his 37th goal of the season - and fourth in three games with 76 seconds left in the extra session on a slap shot from the left point that beat goaltender Johan Hedberg to the glove side.

"We caught them on a change, I think, and (Richards) made a good play just to get me set up and put it right where I wanted it, and I just shot it trying to go far side," St. Louis said. "If it doesn't go in, maybe there's a rebound, but it happened to go in."

After Marian Hossa netted his 35th tally just 30 seconds into the third period to give the Thrashers a 4-3 lead, tough guy Andre Roy tied it nearly two minutes later, when his slapper, which was partially stopped by Hedberg, trickled over the goal line.

"Everything they got, we gave them," Atlanta defenseman Andy Sutton said. "We started messing with the puck a little bit behind our own net. ... Momentum is so big in this game right now, and they generated some momentum to be better."

The league's leading goal-scorer, Vincent Lecavalier reached the 40-goal plateau for the first time in his career with 4:17 remaining in the second period, firing a slap shot from the right point inside the left post to snap a 2-2 tie.

"I kind of hit Sutton a little bit, it went under him and then maybe the goalie lost it or something," Lecavalier said. "It went in. I was happy it went in."

St. Louis and blue-liner Dan Boyle had two assists apiece and Marc Denis made 24 saves for the Lightning, who improved to 5-2-0 against the Thrashers this season.

Hedberg stopped 24 shots for Atlanta, which slipped to 14-10-5 at home.

"I'm sure that (Hedberg) would like to see a couple of goals back," Atlanta coach Bob Hartley said. "Early in the first, he was very sharp. I don't know if he lost a little focus or what. He's quite a competitor. I didn't talk to him tonight. There's no sense in that. He knows that tomorrow, we'll sit and there's no sense in replaying this game."

"We gave them the game back," Thrashers center Bobby Holik said. "We had the game under control and decided to let them back in it, and they beat us. ... We just did not play well enough to win. Nothing you can do but prepare yourself for the next game."

The Thrashers opened the scoring at 2:38 of the first period, when defenseman Steve McCarthy scored his fourth goal of the season from the doorstep, putting the puck between Denis' pads on a power play.

Eric Belanger doubled the margin at 7:50 of the second session with his 10th tally, a bad-angle shot that glanced off Denis and inside the left goalpost.

Richards halved the deficit 1:44 later with a one-timer from the right faceoff circle that beat Hedberg to the glove side. It was his 21st goal of the campaign.

"We saw it all tonight, great goals, weird plays," Hartley said. "We saw quite a display of hockey. It's too bad. We wanted that win, but I think we played well enough to earn the win."