Lightning surge past the Rangers

Coming off an emotional loss that knocked them out of first place, the Tampa Bay Lightning took a little while to get going against the New York Rangers.

They eventually found their stride.

Brayden Point and Cedric Paquette each scored two goals, and Tampa Bay stopped a three-game slide with a 7-3 victory Friday night.

J.T. Miller contributed a powerplay goal in the third period as the Lightning regained first place in the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference with 108 points. Dan Girardi also scored against his former team, Alex Killorn had a goal and an assist, and backup goalie Louis Domingue made 28 saves.

“We got better as the game went along,” star forward Steven Stamkos said. “We wanted to get the two points and we got it and we’ll continue to move on.”

The Lightning fell from the top spot for the first time since midOctober when they lost to the Bruins on Thursday night. They scored a total of four goals during their losing streak.

“It was a tough first for us, just to get our legs back, but I like the way we responded in the second and third and the guys did what they had to do,” coach Jon Cooper said.

Leading 2-1 entering the third period, Miller, Paquette and Point scored in the first 2:38 to blow the game open.

Miller jammed in a rebound of Victor Hedman’s shot from the point 35 seconds into the period. Hedman finished with two assists.

“It felt nice,” Miller said of scoring against his former team. “It was hard with a lot of emotions and thoughts coming into this game. You just want to go out and play your game and luckily, got one to come on my stick in front of the net.”

Paquette added his second of the game when he took a pass from Cory Conacher and sent his shot off the post and into the net. Point finished the run 45 seconds later when he scored his 29th of the season on a 3-on-1 break.