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Prospal helps Lightning cruise past Capitals

Nov 11, 2007 - 5:25 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Vaclav Prospal and the Tampa Bay Lightning are getting the hang of playing on the road.

Prospal scored a goal and set up two others as the Lightning posted a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday.

Martin St. Louis had a goal and an assist and Vincent Lecavalier set up a pair of tallies for Tampa Bay, which matched its season high with three straight wins.

"We played really well defensively and it feels great to get some wins back," Prospal said. "We had a lot of chances in the second period but didn't get any behind their goaltender."

It also was the second straight road victory for the Lightning, who lost their first seven away from home.

"Two in a row on the road, we're going to keep building off this," St. Louis said.

Tampa Bay took control of the game in the third period.

With the contest tied at 1-1 early in the session, Lecavalier fired a shot from the point that bounced off the blocker of goaltender Olaf Kolzig. Prospal, who was lurking nearby, punched in the rebound at 1:29 to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead.

Just 58 seconds later, St. Louis took a quick pass from Prospal and fired a shot past Kolzig to give Tampa Bay a two-goal advantage.

"Chances were hard to come by and we needed to keep our patience," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "Getting a couple in the third period with a few good faceoffs was key."

Prospal was key again when his shot from the the top of the right faceoff circle during a man advantage was deflected in by Ryan Craig with 7:38 remaining, giving the Lightning a 4-1 bulge.

"If you have your power-play unit playing well, like tonight, you can steal away some games," Prospal said.

After Tomas Fleischmann cut Washington's deficit to two with 4:34 left, defenseman Paul Ranger scored an empty-netter with 21 seconds remaining, sealing the victory.

Kolzig was infuriated by his team's third-period performance.

"We're not going to go anywhere if we continue to play like that," the former Vezina Trophy winner said. "We made a point of it before the game to start putting some points together at home. We're awful at home right now. We can't get it done, and the third period was a prime example of that."

Blue-liner Filip Kuba scored the first goal of the game and Johan Holmqvist stopped 23 shots for the Lightning.

"Holmqvist was solid," St. Louis said. "When he plays like that, I like our chances."

Alex Ovechkin tallied his 11th goal of the season and Kolzig made 29 saves for Washington, which is just 3-10-1 after starting the season with three straight wins.

"I thought the difference tonight was that a core group of Tampa Bay players that have won a Stanley Cup pushed themselves on a night when the two teams had been playing a lot of hockey," Capitals coach Glen Hanlon said. "They've played three games in four nights and we had three in five nights, but they had more jump."