The Lightning winning streak is over at 5.  The Rangers looked fresh and crisp as they down the Lightning 3-2 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Saturday night.  The 6-2 Bolts finish up the 5-game homestand with a 4-1 record.  The Rangers improve to 4-4 on the season.  Steven Stamkos scored both Lightning goals in the loss.

Everyone wanted to see Anders Lindback against Henrik Lundqvist.  Instead, they got Mathieu Garon against Martin Biron and both goalies played well early on.  Garon made some impressive saves in the opening period, including a great stop on a point blank shot by Marian Gaborik.  Biron also made his share of saves, including a nifty glove save on a wrist shot by Benoit Pouliot.  The Rangers outshot the Bolts 11-8 in a scoreless first period.  It was also a clean first period with no penalties.

The Lightning got on the board first early in the second period.  Stu Bickel of the Rangers was called for hooking and the Bolts took advantage on the power play.  Stamkos beat Biron for his 6^th goal of the season to make it 1-0 Lightning with 15:38 left in the 2^nd period.  Stamkos was later called for hooking and the Rangers took advantage on the power play.  Derek Stepan scored off a rebound to beat Garon to tie the game at 1-1 with 10:10 left in the second period.  B.J. Crombeen appeared to score for the Bolts with about 7 minutes left but the goal was reviewed and waived off by officials.  Crombeen’s stick was too high.  A short time later, Bolts had a 2-on-1 chance but Cory Conacher’s shot went off the crossbar.   The second period ended with the score tied at 1-1.

The Bolts killed off the Rangers power play opportunity to open the 3^rd period.  But a little over 3-minutes into the period, Rick Nash got around Victor Hedman and beat Garon to make it 2-1 Rangers at the 3:03 mark.  Blueshirts struck again with over 5-minutes left to play.  Carl Hagelin received a nice feed from Stepan to beat Garon right between his legs to make it 3-1 New York.   Stamkos scored on a slapper with 21-seconds left to get it within one at 3-2.  But the Rangers were able to hold the Bolts to come away with the road win.

Saturday night’s game was another sellout.  That means all 6 Lightning games have been sold out.  The Lightning begin a 4-game road trip on Tuesday when they skate in Philadelphia against the Flyers.  Coverage of that game begins at 7pm on 970 WFLA.