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Lightning defeat Flyers for 10th consecutive time

Nov 3, 2006 - 2:43 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- The Tampa Bay Lightning have used the Philadelphia Flyers as a punching bag over the last several years. Thursday's meeting was a second-round knockout.

Martin St. Louis scored his second goal of the game in the middle session and Tim Taylor added a tally late in the period as the Lightning skated to a 5-2 victory over the Flyers.

Entering with a three-game losing streak, the Lightning could not have asked for a better opponent. They now have won 10 straight regular-season meetings with the Flyers, in addition to defeating them in the Eastern Conference finals in 2004.

"How did we end up winning 10 in a row versus Philadelphia? Who knows why that happens," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "We're just happy that we were able to stop the bleeding as far the slump that we're in, and we found a way to get a win."

Tampa Bay took control in the second period, turning a 1-0 lead into a three-goal advantage. Philadelphia came back with two tallies in a 21-second span late in the third period but was unable to get the equalizer past Johan Holmqvist, who finished with 30 saves to post his first NHL victory.

"(The first win) feels really good," Holmqvist said. "I've been waiting for this for many years now. It was a big win for the whole team. We had some tough losses in the past couple of games. Tonight, we put in a good effort and it was a big win for the team."

After netting his eighth tally of the season in the first period, St. Louis tacked on another at 7:27 of the middle session when he deflected a shot by defenseman Luke Richardson past goaltender Antero Niittymaki.

Taylor made it 3-0 with 1:50 remaining in the period, scoring his first of the campaign on a wraparound that snuck by Niittymaki.

Vincent Lecavalier had an empty-net goal and two assists and rookie Eric Perrin added another empty-netter for his first NHL goal. Richardson chipped in two assists against his former team.

"It was really important (to get the win), especially after losing three straight," said Lecavalier, who scored in his sixth straight game. "It's nice to get a win on the road and start the road trip on the right note. We've got to be more consistent and get some wins back."

R.J. Umberger and blue-liner Randy Jones scored for the Flyers, who lost captain Peter Forsberg with 4:10 remaining when he received a 10-minute misconduct for slamming his stick against the penalty box.

"It's unacceptable to wait until the third period to start playing well," Umberger said. "We had some chances. They are just not going in. We couldn't get that one bounce and it is almost to the point where the frustration is setting in."

The floundering Flyers (3-8-1) still have not won back-to-back games this season. They have yet to score more than four goals and have only netted that many on two occasions.

"Why we came out the way we did is a mystery," said Flyers coach John Stevens, who is 2-2-0 since taking over for the fired Ken Hitchcock. "We need to compete the way we did in the third period if we expect to have any hope in this league."