Lightning Strike Down Islanders

The Tampa Bay Lightning are finding some comfort on the road. Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, and Brad Richards each had a goal and an assist as Tampa Bay beat the Islanders 4–3 yesterday for its fifth straight win. The Lightning have won the first two games on their road trip after splitting a fourgame trip earlier this month.

"We started feeling better about ourselves on our early January road trip," Richards said. "Everybody thought we'd lose all four games, and we won our last two. That got us on a bit of a roll. Right now, we're just barely back in the playoffs, and we have to continue to be better."

Vaclav Prospal had a goal and two assists for Tampa Bay, while Johan Holmqvist stopped 33 shots for his third straight win against New York.

"As bad as we were in the first half, we were still around .500," St. Louis said. "Right now, we're on this streak because everybody's chipping in." Alexei Yashin, Viktor Kozlov, and Trent Hunter scored for the Islanders, losers of two in a row and winless in eight of their last 10 (2–7–1) — including four straight losses at home.