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 Filppula had two goals and an assist, goalie Ben Bishop won his
13th game this season and the Lightning beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-1
in a matchup of conference leaders Thursday night.
Martin St. Louis added a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who
played their first home game and second overall — both victories —
without star Steven Stamkos. The center, out indefinitely after
breaking his right leg Monday, had surgery Tuesday in Boston and
returned to Florida on Thursday.
"Nice to be back home in Tampa," Stamkos tweeted. "Can't thank all
the staff at Mass General enough for all their hard work and
dedication the past four days."
Alex Killorn and Victor Hedman had the other Tampa Bay goals. Bishop
made 24 saves as the Lightning improved to 7-0-0 against Western
Conference teams.
"We talked about this at length," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
"Nobody's filling 91's shoes. Not one person can do it. Nobody in
the league can do it. But, 20 guys can fill his shoes."
Emerson Etem scored for the Ducks, who were coming off a 3-2 loss
Tuesday night to lowly Florida.
"Even with our record, I thought we were pretty fragile," Anaheim
coach Bruce Boudreau said. "And once you got behind, it was like the
shoulders dipped, and again, we didn't have enough pushback. It's
not us. We haven't done that in 20 games. When they started to get
physical, we didn't meet the bell."
Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf missed his third game with an
upper-body injury, but Boudreau said the center could return Friday
at Carolina or Monday against Pittsburgh.
Ducks right wing Corey Perry didn't take part in the morning skate
due to the flu, but was in the lineup. A number of Anaheim players,
including starting goalie Jonas Hiller, have had the flu recently.
"If you want to give excuses, yeah. They are," Boudreau said. "We
just didn't compete hard enough in a game that was an important
game. And when you don't compete against a team that competes, it
doesn't matter who's in the lineup or who's out of the lineup,
you're not going to have success."
[to top of second column] |
Filppula and St. Louis, on the power play, put
the Lightning up 2-0 on first-period goals. St. Louis ended a
seven-game goal drought.
"I think the whole year we've been playing well as a team,"
Filppula said. "Stamkos is a big part of the team. But now,
we're forced to play well without him, and I think playing the
whole year pretty well, we have the confidence that we can do
it."
The Ducks went 13½ minutes before getting a shot in the first.
Bishop made an in-close save late in the period on Teemu
Selanne. The right wing, 11th on the career goals list with 678,
has not scored a goal in his last nine games.
Tampa Bay went up 3-0 on Filppula's power-play goal 3:16 into
the second. Killorn made it 4-0 at 10:51 of the second.
Etem pulled Anaheim to 4-1 with 3:53 left in the second. Hedman
scored early in the third.
"They just outworked us," said Hiller, who stopped 15 shots.
"They put pressure on us. We were just giving the puck away, and
that definitely boosted their confidence."
The Ducks are 8-4-1 against the East, including 4-4-1 versus
Atlantic Division teams.
NOTES: Selanne got a 2-minute roughing penalty, his first
infraction of the season, during a second-period scrum that
involved Tampa Bay D Radko Gudas, who made a hard check on him.
Gudas was given roughing and holding minors. ... Lightning D
Sami Salo, who missed his second game with a lower-body injury,
could return during a four-game road trip that starts Saturday
at Phoenix. ... Anaheim G Viktor Fasth was the backup after
missing 14 game with a lower-body injury. G Frederik Andersen
was reassigned to Norfolk of the AHL. ... Ducks LW Matt Beleskey
(upper-body injury) is playing with Norfolk. ... Selanne, who
plans to retire after this season, scored the second-ever hat
trick against the expansion Lightning on March 9, 1993.
[Associated
Press; MARK DIDTLER]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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