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 Tampa Bay, which has been without Stamkos — who twice led the NHL
in goals and is a slam dunk for Canada's Olympic team if he can
return in time from a broken leg suffered Nov. 11 — for nearly two
months, put another victory in the books with a 2-0 win over the
struggling Calgary Flames on Friday night.
The Lightning have a 13-7-4 record without Stamkos and hit the
halfway point of the season with a 25-12-4 record, good for second
in the Atlantic Division and two points behind the Boston Bruins.
"If you told us where we are and considering all the injuries we've
had, I think we would have paid for that," said Lightning right
winger Marty St. Louis. "We're working hard and I think we're
getting rewarded for all the work we're putting in."
After a scoreless first period in which the Lightning had the bulk
of the momentum before the announced Scotiabank Saddledome crowd of
19,289, Tampa Bay found all the offense it needed from a pair of
rookies in the second period.
Left winger Ondrej Palat opened the scoring by wisely electing to
shoot on a 2-on-1 rush and ripping a glove-side shot into the net,
and then set up right winger Nikita Kucherov with a neat cross-ice
pass that was easily redirected into the cage.
From there, Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop was more than equal to
the task while stopping 19 shots and posting his fourth shutout of
the season, which ties him with Boston's Tuukka Rask for the league
lead.
"That's nice, but I don't look to much to that, more wins. I don't
care if we win 6-5 or 1-0," Bishop said.
With the win over the team the Lightning beat in the 2004 Stanley
Cup final, Tampa Bay has a sparkling 10-2-3 record against Western
Conference opponents this season.
Flames goalie Karri Ramo had high hopes of beating his former team — he played 48 games for the Lightning in three seasons before
spending four years in the KHL — and held strong through yet
another first period while his team was outplayed.
Despite several solid saves in a 27-stop effort, it was nowhere near
enough for a Flames team that has been shut out three times in a
four-game losing streak, all at home, and fell to 14-21-6.
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"It seems like an old song. I thought we played a decent
first period. We managed to stay in the game then a few bad
penalties," said Flames coach Bob Hartley, whose club has been
blanked four times in eight outings. "The sad part of this is we
killed them off and they got us a few seconds later so that put
us right on our heels.
"As we all know, we are a very fragile group right now. As soon
as we get down it seems we lose a step and we can't generate. In
the third period I admired the push, the fight back that we
showed. It's the bad habits we have that gives teams the lead.
That's something we have to find a way to correct and correct
quickly."
The Flames have only scored one goal in their four-game slide
and have managed just one victory in nine outings while falling
to near the bottom of the standings.
"You can tell it's a team frustrated offensively, but they had a
tough task tonight," said St. Louis, who started his career in
Calgary. "Bish has been on top of his game, but we've been there
before and it's a tough place to be. You press a little bit. I'm
sure they'll come out of it."
NOTES: Flames D Dennis Wideman returned to action after missing
16 games with a broken bone in his hand suffered when he blocked
a shot Nov. 27. The return of the defenseman, who collected two
goals and 12 points in 24 games before being injured, marks just
the ninth game this season the Flames have had both Wideman and
D Mark Giordano in the lineup together. Wideman played 20:30 ...
Tampa Bay C Steven Stamkos, who has been out of action since
suffering a broken leg on Nov. 11, skated in full equipment in
practice on Thursday. If he can return in time for the 2014
Olympic Winter Games, he is expected to play for Team Canada.
... Lightning D Sami Salo, who missed his fourth game with an
undisclosed upper-body injury, practiced but did not play. He is
expected to play Sunday in Edmonton. ... Lightning general
manager Steve Yzerman was among five former players, including
former Detroit Red Wings teammate Nicklas Lidstrom, to be named
to the 2014 class of the International Ice Hockey Federation
Hall of Fame. ... Flames LW Michael Cammalleri was minus-2 and
is minus-21 on the season, second worst in the league ahead of
only RW Nail Yakupov of the Edmonton Oilers.
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