THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL — The long slump looks to be over for Michael Ryder.
The Canadiens sniper, who changed his sticks to try to change his luck, had two goals and an assist to lift Montreal to a 6-3 victory that extended the Tampa Bay Lightning’s winless run to six games on Thursday night.
Ryder, who broke a 14-game goalless drought Dec. 28 against Florida, now has three goals in his last three games after an 18-game stretch in which he was without a point and was made a healthy scratch five times.
"It was a tough time and it was really hard to deal with," said Ryder, who now has six goals for the season after consectutive 30-goal campaigns for Montreal. "But I had to stay confident and keep working hard".
"The whole time was tough, especially when the team was struggling." Alexei Kovalev, Chris Higgins, Andrei Kostitsyn and Kyle Chipchura also scored for 20-13-7 Montreal, which won at home for only the second time in its last nine tries.
Vaclav Prospal had a goal and two assists, while Martin St. Louis and NHL scoring leader Vincent Lecavalier each had a goal and assist for the 15-22-4 Lightning, who are last in the Eastern Conference.
Tampa Bay’s league-worst road record fell to 3-14-2. Their last away win was a 3-2 shootout decision in Montreal on Dec. 11.
"We can’t get into a situation where we feel bad for ourselves — we have to keep fighting," said Lighting coach John Tortorella, whose team plays at first-place Ottawa on Saturday.
"We’ll continue coaching, trying to stay together and try to force things to go our way. That was our 41st game. We have 41 left and our division is still wide open. So we have to continue to fight and not give in to it." Andrei Kostitsyn, who has four goals in his last four games, broke a 3-3 tie when he skated down the left wing and fired a shot that went in off rookie goaltender Karri Ramo’s glove to a roar from the sellout crowd of 21,273.
Chipchura added a goal at 11:01 of the third after Sergei Kostitsyn forced a turnover in front of the Tampa Bay net.
Higgins, who also had three points, fed Ryder on a two-on-one to complete the scoring at 17:22. He said Ryder has stepped up his play of late and that has led to breaking the slump.
"Obviously, the goals are important because people look at stats," said Higgins. "But it was the way that he was playing that helped him out of it." Coach Guy Carbonneau was happy to get a win at home and some goals from the previously dormant Ryder.
"It hasn’t been easy for him," said Carbonneau. "We asked him to shoot more and tonight, he got the kind of goals he was scoring the last two seasons".
"He may be our only guy who can score like that from the top of the circle." The Canadiens held 2-0 and 3-1 leads, but saw the Lightning fight back to tie it 3-3 going into the third period.
Kovalev banged in Ryder’s pass on a powerplay 14:16 into the game and, three minutes later, Higgins wristed a Saku Koivu pass in on another man advantage. Kovalev’s 17th goal is only one less than he had all of last season.
Lecavalier put the Bolts back in the game 49 seconds into the second frame on a spectacular effort as he reached back to take Prospal’s pass behind the Montreal defence and scored his 27th on the breakaway.
Lecavalier was in alone again two minutes later, but was foiled by Cristobal Huet.
Ryder snapped a shot in while on an off-wing rush at 9:10, but St. Louis banged in Prospal’s pass on a power play at 12:04.
A mix-up between defencemen Francis Bouillon and Josh Gorges gave the Lightning’s top line the puck in the slot and, two quick passes later, Prospal had his 18th of the season.
"We have to try to find some positives as we go through this rough ride," added Tortorella. "I thought our top players put it right in my face".
"They were our best players on the ice. We battled back hard." The Canadiens opened a three-game homestand that continues Saturday against Washington. The Lightning end a four-game trip Tuesday against the Rangers in New York.
Notes: Injured Canadiens Patrice Brisebois (shoulder), Steve Begin (shoulder) and Bryan Smolinski (knee) are close to returning, while rookie defenceman Ryan O’Byrne is out six weeks with a broken thumb.. . Koivu earned his 400th career assist… Huet is 6-2-0 in his career against Tampa Bay.
