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St. Louis guides Lightning over Carolina

Dec 21, 2010 - 5:49 AM Tampa, FL (Sports Network) - Martin St. Louis scored a goal and dished out two assists, as the Tampa Bay Lightning extended their best start in franchise history with a 5-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes from St. Pete Times Forum.

Dominic Moore and Brett Clark both had a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who have won four in a row and have 42 points on the season. Sean Bergenheim and Steven Stamkos also lit the lamp.

Dan Ellis made 21 saves for Tampa Bay.

Sergei Samsonov scored the lone goal for the Hurricanes, who saw a four-game winning streak come to an end. Justin Peters turned aside 29-of-34 shots.

"In some stretches of this game we played better than we did in games that we won," Carolina head coach Paul Maurice said. "That's just the beauty of hockey."

The Lightning drew first blood at the 5:48 mark of the first period. Moore led a rush down the left side of the ice and, instead of passing, made his way to the slot before backhanding a shot past Peters.

Samsonov's power-play goal tied the game at the 15:52 mark.

With just one second left in the first, St. Louis beat Peters with a slapper from the left circle.

Clark made it 3-1 at the 14:51 mark of the second, when his shot from the point hit a Carolina player in front and trickled past Peters.

Tampa Bay took a 4-1 lead with 3:34 remaining while on the power play. St. Louis' shot from the point set up a rebound in front for Stamkos, who chipped the disc into the net for his 100th career goal.

"It's obviously nice to have that accomplishment," Stamkos said. "It wasn't really anything that was brought up or that I came into the game thinking about."

Bergenheim's power-play goal with 1:02 left in the middle stanza accounted for the final score.

Game Notes

The Hurricanes and Lightning split their six-game series last year, with Tampa Bay winning two of three at home. Carolina, though, swept the season series in 2008-09 and has wins in 10 of 14 and 12 of the past 17 meetings overall...Carolina went 1-for-5 on the power play, while Tampa Bay went 2- for-3 with the man advantage.