Senators’ Lalime Is Still in Shutout Mode

Patrick Lalime made sure that there was nothing but good news for the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.

Lalime earned his third consecutive shutout, and Radek Bonk and Martin Havlat each scored twice to lead the Senators over the Tampa Bay Lightning, 7-0.

A sold-out Corel Centre crowd of 18,500 welcomed the financially troubled Senators home from a 3-1-0 trip.

Zdeno Chara, Petr Schastlivy and Chris Neil also scored. Ottawa moved to the top of the NHL standings with 62 points.

“It’s great to see the fan support,” Neil said.

Lalime made 17 saves for his fifth shutout this season and the 25th of his career. He extended his shutout streak to a team-record 180 minutes.

“It’s not just one game that he’s been great, he’s been pretty good all season and I think he could deserve to play in the All-Star game,” Havlat said.

Toronto 3, Calgary 2 -- Mats Sundin scored the go-ahead goal with 7:59 left in the third period and the Maple Leafs extended their home unbeaten streak to 13 games.

Ed Belfour made 31 saves for Toronto, 12-0-1 at home since losing to Detroit on Nov. 16.

Vancouver 4, Nashville 3 -- Trevor Letowski banged in a loose puck with 5:15 left and host Vancouver rallied from a two-goal deficit.

Dan Cloutier made 24 stops and Marc Crawford won his 142nd game with Vancouver, tying him with Harry Neale as the franchise leader in coaching victories.

St. Louis 4, Phoenix 1 -- Martin Rucinsky scored a short-handed goal early in third period and St. Louis ended Phoenix’s five-game unbeaten streak at home.

Al MacInnis and Alexander Khavanov scored empty-net goals in the last 53 seconds.

Tyson Nash also scored for the Blues.

Buffalo 1, Minnesota 0 -- Denis Hamel got his first point this season with a third-period goal at St. Paul, Minn., and rookie Ryan Miller made 22 saves in his first shutout.