NY Rangers (15-7-2) at Tampa Bay (6-8-6) 7:30 p.m. EST
TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Interim coach Rick Tocchet finally
led the Tampa Bay Lightning to a victory. The celebration did
not last long.
The Lightning look to rebound from yet another loss on Wednesday
when they host the New York Rangers.
Following a pair of shootout losses in his first two games after
taking over for the fired Barry Melrose on November 14, Tocchet
finally earned his first win with Tampa Bay on Friday.
Vincent Lecavalier scored two first-period goals and Ryan Malone
notched three assists after missing four games with a lower body
injury as the Lightning rolled past the Nashville Predators,
4-1.
Tampa Bay failed to build on that win Sunday, dropping a 7-3
decision to the New Jersey Devils to fall to 2-5-3 over its last
10 games.
The Rangers bounced back from two straight regulation losses
during their last game on Monday, posting a 4-1 rout of the
lowly Phoenix Coyotes.
Brandon Dubinsky scored and added an assist, recording his first
goal in 14 games after registering four points over that span.
It was his fourth multi-point game but first since collecting
two assists at Detroit on October 18.
Nikolai Zherdev had a season-high three assists, defenseman Dan
Girardi scored a power-play goal midway through the third period
and penalty-killer Blair Betts tallied in the first as New York
avoided its first three-game losing streak of the season.