Lundin, Mike

They made that way harder than it had to be.

OTT-3
TB-4 (SO)

Johan Holmqvist stopped 26 of 29 shots faced before stopping 3 of 4 shooters in penalty shots for the shootout win.

First Period
Tampa Bay 3:43, Mathieu Darche 4 (Jan Hlavac)
Tampa Bay 11:34, Chris Gratton 4 (Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
Ottawa 7:05, Daniel Alfredsson 18 (Joe Corvo, Jason Spezza)
Tampa Bay 9:08, Filip Kuba 3 (Martin St. Louis, Vaclav Prospal)
Ottawa 18:03, Daniel Alfredsson 19 (Dany Heatley, Christoph Schubert)
Ottawa 18:39, Wade Redden 4 (Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley)

Overtime
NO SCORING

Shootout
OTT-Heatley
TB-Richards, Prospal

A funny thing happens when you put forth an effort.

BOS-1
TB-4

Johan Holmqvist stopped 28 of 29 shots faced for the victory.

You might've noticed there was no game thread for the Detroit game. That was not an accident. After sleepwalking for six period straight my attitude was that if the team didn't care, honestly, why should I?

Tonight, however, the effort level and the will to compete was back, and they put together a sold, convincing win against a club they traditionally struggle against. Funny that. The harder you work the better you get.

Mike Lundin blocked 1 shot in 17:56 of ice time as he remains on track for an early January graduation from prospect status. Tonight was his 26th NHL game, leaving him 15 short of the finish line by site criteria.

Mathieu Darche had 1 goal, 3 shots, 2 hits, 1 blocked shot, and a +1 rating in 18:12 of ice time. Now 19 games played into his season, Darche needs 22 more to graduate from prospect status, which could happen as early as mid January.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Sloppy game, but the Lightning still issued a beat down.

WAS-2
TB-5

Johan Holmqvist was outstanding stopping 28 of 30 shots faced for the win.

First Period
Tampa Bay 1:31, Vincent Lecavalier 13 (power play) (Martin St. Louis, Brad Richards)
Washington 12:46, Brooks Laich 3 (Shaone Morrisonn, Boyd Gordon)
Washington 13:30, Alexander Ovechkin 13 (Chris Clark, Nicklas Backstrom)
Tampa Bay 15:19, Jan Hlavac 3 (unassisted)

Second Period
Tampa Bay 10:22, Brad Richards 7 (power play) (Vincent Lecavalier)
Tampa Bay 19:32, Paul Ranger 4 (Martin St. Louis)

Third Period
Tampa Bay 19:36, Martin St. Louis 7 (empty net) (Brad Richards, Vincent Lecavalier)

Back to .500 with a chance to pull within at least 4 points in the division next week.

TB-5
WAS-2

Johan Holmqvist stopped 23 of 25 shots faced in the win.

First Period
NO SCORING

Second Period
Tampa Bay 12:30, Filip Kuba 2 (power play) (Michel Ouellet, Vincent Lecavalier)
Washington 18:20, Alexander Ovechkin 11 (Mike Green, Tom Poti)

Third Period
Tampa Bay 1:29, Vaclav Prospal 11 (Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis)
Tampa Bay 2:27, Martin St. Louis 5 (Vaclav Prospal, Brad Lukowich)
Tampa Bay 12:22, Ryan Craig 1 (power play) (Vaclav Prospal, Chris Gratton)
Washington 15:26, Tomas Fleischmann 4 (Tom Poti, Viktor Kozlov)
Tampa Bay 19:39, Paul Ranger 2 (empty net) (Brad Richards)

The streak is over. Lets start a winning one.

FLA-1
TB-3

Johan Holmqvist stopped 22 of 23 shots faced for the win.

First Period
Tampa Bay 1:48, Jan Hlavac 2 (Brad Richards, Paul Ranger)
Tampa Bay 6:37, Martin St. Louis 4 (Vincent Lecavalier)

Second Period
Florida 8:46, Kamil Kreps 1 (Mike Van Ryn)

Third Period
Tampa Bay 19:02, Vincent Lecavalier 8 (empty net) (Vaclav Prospal, Paul Ranger)