Stamkos has 2 goals and an assist, Tampa Bay beats Ottawa 5-2

Stamkos has 2 goals in Lightning win

TAMPA, Fla. — Steven Stamkos had two power-play goals and an assist to help the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Thursday night.

Todd Fedoruk, Ryan Malone and Alex Tanguay also scored for the Lightning, who are 4-0-2 at home.

Stamkos put Tampa Bay ahead 1-0 at 7:20 of the first when his redirection of Vincent Lecavalier’s shot appeared to go into the net off Ottawa defenseman Filip Kuba. The second-year center gave the Lightning a 4-0 lead at 7:09 of the third from the low right circle after a nifty stickhandling move.

Ottawa got third-period goals from Jarkko Ruutu and Alex Kovalev. The Senators were coming off a 4-3 win Wednesday night at Florida.

Tanguay stopped a personal 12-game goal drought, dating to April 4, just over 2 minutes after Stamkos’ second goal.

Fedoruk made it 2-0 on an in-close rebound goal at 4:34 of the second. Malone’s wraparound goal extended Tampa Bay’s advantage to 3-0 with 5:12 left in the second.

After stopping a shot by Milan Michalek earlier in the third during a breakaway, Lightning goalie Mike Smith lost his shutout bid when Ruutu scored with 9:34 remaining. Kovalev cut the Ottawa deficit to 5-2 later in the period.

Tampa Bay’s Martin St. Louis played in his 700th NHL games and extended his franchise-record season-opening points streak to 10 games (11 assists, 14 points) with an assist. The NHL record is 51 games, set by Wayne Gretzky during the 1983-84 season.

St. Louis missed the net to the right on short-handed penalty shot midway through the second.

NOTES: Senators D Anton Volchenkov is expected to miss at least a couple weeks after hurting his right elbow in Wednesday’s game. He was replaced on the roster by D Brian Lee, who was recalled from Binghamton of the AHL. … Ottawa C Jason Spezza didn’t play due to an upper-body injury. … New Jersey special assignment coach Pat Burns, who is battling cancer, scouted the game in preparation for the Devils game at Tampa Bay on Saturday. A regular at Lightning home games, this was his first game this season.