Steve Yzerman & Vinny Lecavalier Photo courtesy of Tampa Bay Lightning Facebook Page

This evening’s game at the Tampa Bay Times Forum began with a great celebration of Vinny Lecavalier’s first 1,000 games in the NHL. Once the team gets some of the videos up, we’ll go into that in more detail. The action on the ice was pretty remarkable as well. After a sloppy second period, the Lightning regrouped and defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-4.  In doing so they handed the Sens their first loss of the season.

Matt Carle opened the scoring on a power play  just 1:09 into the first period, but it didn’t take long for Erik Condra to tie it up. Ottawa pulled away in the second on goals from Jason Spezza and Erik Karlsson. Steven Stamkos did what he does best to pull the Bolts within one, only to see Kyle Turris widen the gap yet again. Victor Hedman brought an action packed second period to a close with a goal of his own.

It was all Tampa in the third. Ryan Malone scored twice including the game winner and Tom Pyatt sealed the deal with an empty net goal. Anders Lindback ended the night with 32 saves. Cory Conacher’s point streak continued with two assists on the night.

A win is a win, but Tampa has made a bit of a habit of shrinking in the second period. The Bolts have been excellent in the third period so far this year, outscoring opponents 11-1 in the final 20 minutes. Guy Boucher is looking for improvement and the guys know it can’t keep going that way.

“It’s a big comeback, but we understand that’s not the way we want to win games,’’ Marty St. Louis said. “We know we can come back, we know we have character, but we can’t continue to do that game in and game out — that’s a lot of wear and tear.’’ (Quote Source: Tampa Tribune)

With the Philadelphia Flyers coming into town for a Sunday evening game, there’s not much time to dwell on this one. As a sign in the locker room says, “Choose Everyday! Get Worse. Stay the Same. Get Better”. If this team can iron out the lingering kinks we may have something special here.