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St. Louis scores game-winner as Lightning top Rangers

Sep 26, 2008 - 2:26 AM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Martin St. Louis snapped a tie 4:36 into the third period as the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied for a 4-2 preseason victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday.

St. Louis' backhanded shot from close range sailed over goaltender Stephen Valiquette's glove to put the Lightning on top for the first time in the game. It was their second tally in a span of 2 minutes, 18 seconds, as free-agent acquisition Ryan Malone tied the contest at 2-2 by converting a breakaway chance just over two minutes into the third.

Chris Gratton also scored and Evgeny Artyukhin added an empty-net goal as Tampa Bay improved to 3-1-0 this preseason. Top overall pick Steven Stamkos had a pair of assists and defenseman Matt Carle set up three goals for the Lightning.

Lauri Korpikoski scored his second goal of the preseason less than eight minutes into the second period to give the Rangers a 2-1 edge. Acquired from Columbus during the offseason, Dan Fritsche recorded his first two points by scoring at 8:58 of the first period and setting up Korpikoski's tally.

Karri Ramo posted his second win of the preseason by stopping 45 shots. He made 17 saves in each of the first two periods before turning aside 11 shots in the third.

The Lightning were without new captain Vincent Lecavalier, who has practiced but been held out of action following offseason shoulder surgery. Vaclav Prospal and Gary Roberts also sat out for Tampa Bay, which will next will play an exhibition game in the Czech Republic against Eisbaren Berlin on Sunday.



Valiquette stopped 21 shots as the Rangers fell to 1-4-0. Two of the losses have been to Tampa Bay.

The Rangers rested most of their regulars, including offseason acquisitions Nikolai Zherdev and Markus Naslund. Scott Gomez, Chris Drury and Brandon Dubinsky also sat out, as did defensemen Marc Staal, Michal Rozsival and Paul Mara.

New York will host New Jersey on Saturday before heading to Switzerland to take on SC Bern on Tuesday.

The Rangers and Lightning open the regular season with a two-game set from October 4-5 in Prague.