Hat trick comes at perfect time for St. Louis

Martin St. Louis picked the perfect way to celebrate his 900th game in the National Hockey League – with a quintessential tip of the hat.

The Tampa Bay Lightning's veteran right wing notched the fifth hat trick of his 11-career tenure with the team – and his first since 2006 – to power a 6-3 victory over intrastate rival and Southeast Division-leading Florida on Saturday night at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

"You play this thing from the beginning and just try to find your way, and to be in the league for that many games, I'm proud of that," said the 36-year-old undrafted star out of the University of Vermont. "Tough start to get going, but once I got going I really felt that I wanted to be here for a while."

"I worked hard to be here," he continued, his three young sons by his side. "And now I get to share these moments with my three boys. There's nothing like it."

St. Louis' heroics came less than two months after being struck in the face by a puck during practice, sustaining several fractures and missing 13 days, including what would have been his milestone 500th consecutive regular season game on the day of the injury.

But there was no denying this landmark. His effort helped give the Lightning (23-23-4) a much-needed win against the best team in the Southeast Division and raise its record to 6-0-1 in the last seven games, renewing the Bolts' hopes for a second-half run at the playoffs.

"It's only fitting," said Lightning head coach Guy Boucher. "It couldn't have happened on a better night. … (Steven) Stamkos could have shot that; it's just a tribute to the kind of people we have on our team: real unselfish people; people who care about the group."

In many respects, the Lightning and Panthers have been polar opposites lately.

While the Lightning soared into the All-Star break with four straight wins following a frustrating opening act in 2011-12, the Panthers stumbled through January with a mark of 2-7 after a stellar start to the season.

Coming out the break early this past week, it was the Cats who got back on track with a pair of victories to regain the division lead over the Washington Capitals – while the Lightning watched its five-game winning streak end Thursday at home against Winnipeg in a 2-1 overtime loss.

But Saturday, the state rivals once again found themselves on opposite ends of the spectrum as Tampa Bay short-circuited Florida's recent surge before an electrified sellout crowd of 19,204.

The first two of St. Louis' scores came in a four-goal second period, which featured a handful of other noteworthy offensive showings. There was the early tie-breaking goal by team captain Vinny Lecavalier in the pivotal period – marking the 12th time in his 13-year career he has reached the 20-goal mark in a season.

The score was knotted 1-1 early in the second when right wing Ryan Shannon forced a turnover. Moments later, Lecavalier flicked a wrist shot over the glove of Florida goalkeeper Scott Clemmensen at the 18:18 mark – and the Lightning never lost the lead after that.

Along the way, NHL leading scorer Stamkos scored his 34th goal of the season – maintaining his impressive status as the player who has scored more career goals (153) than any active player prior to his 22nd birthday – ahead of Sidney Crosby (132), Jaromir Jagr (111), Iyla Kovalchuck (108) and Alex Ovechkin (98).

The Panthers threatened to get back into the game in the closing moments of the second period when ex-Lightning standout Sean Bergenheim – a key performer on last season's playoff team – scored to make it 5-3 with 46 seconds remaining. But the Bolts kept the visitors at bay after that, eventually improving to 4-1-1 this season over the Panthers.

"We had a tough second period to say the least," said Panthers head coach Kevin Dineen. "We got off to a tough start, and I think we were our own worst enemy. That was certainly the difference – the push they put on in the second period."

In the process, the Bolts set a season high with six goals Saturday night and have points in seven straight for the first time since 2010. They also finished with nine points against the Panthers, the most they've ever accumulated in one season against them. More important, they're eight points back of Florida with 31 games remaining, plenty of time to make up that ground the way they're playing.

"It's a huge two points," said Shannon, who contributed two assists. "We knew they had a game last night, so we wanted to wear them down and we did that. And it opened up the way for Marty's hat trick in his 900th game. And we climbed a couple of more points in the standings."

"Maybe it's a little fatigue back to back," said Florida's right wing Mikael Samuelsson, whose team defeated Winnipeg 2-1 Friday night. "But we should have been able to make a big push in the third. Still, we had a couple of chances, but they played good."

In the end, the Lightning outshot the Panthers (24-16-11) 34-20, and Florida goalkeeper Clemmenson was pulled briefly in the explosive second period after allowing five goals on 25 shots (following Nate Thompson's goal in the first).

Clemmenson was back in the net in the third period when St. Louis notched goal No. 3 for his memorable hat trick, extending his point streak to nine games – the longest by a Lightning player this season.

"It was great," Lecavalier said of his longtime teammate. "He played great tonight; he really battled; he deserves it. He had a great game, he really helped us out and obviously that 900th game makes it that extra special for him."

But St. Louis didn't miss a beat when asked about his three boys by his side: "That's the best hat trick I've ever had."