Backups to face off in Tampa Bay

TAMPA, Fla. - It's likely to be a battle of backup goaltenders when the Tampa Bay Lightning host the New York Rangers on Saturday night.

Rangers coach John Tortorella has tapped Martin Biron to make his first start of the year, while Lightning coach Guy Boucher is expected to let Mathieu Garon start the second half of the team's back-to-back weekend set.

This will be Biron's first start of the season in place of Henrik Lundqvist, who started the team's first seven games.

“We have a philosophy about playing goaltenders and we’ll stick to it,” Tortorella said. “We felt really comfortable how we used our goalies last year and we didn’t stray from that. We’ll do the same this year. We have two good ones.”

The Lightning lead the NHL in goals scored with 37. That total easily exceeds the combined efforts of the Nashville Predators and the Los Angeles Kings, who have scored 12 goals each.

After scoring three power-play goals on Friday night against Winnipeg, the Lightning have now scored 11 times out of 26 extra-man opportunities on home ice, good for a 42.3-percent success rate.

That display of scoring prowess now has Tampa Bay looking to earn its sixth straight win and wrap up a five-game homestand with a perfect 5-0-0 record.

“It’s the best power play we’ve seen this year,” Tortorella said. “They’ve got some good people. We need to be a disciplined team. You need to respect them.”

The Lightning did not hold a morning skate Saturday after routing the Winnipeg Jets 8-3 on Friday night.

In keeping with the season-long celebration of the Lightning’s 20th anniversary season, former player Brad Richards and former coach Tortorella, who won the Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004, will be honored during the game.

But Tortorella was in no mood to honor, or be honored, Saturday morning. Asked about a former player, Tortorella was quick to snap.

“I don’t want to talk about them,” he said. “Not at all.”

Here are the lineups each team is expected to use Saturday night.

LIGHTNING

Ryan Malone – Steven Stamkos – Martin St. Louis

Cory Conacher – Vincent Lecavalier – Teddy Purcell

Adam Hall – Nate Thompson – B.J. Crombeen

Tom Pyatt – Benoit Pouliot – Dana Tyrell

Eric Brewer – Matthew Carle

Victor Hedman – Sami Salo

Brian Lee – Keith Aulie

Mathieu Garon

Anders Lindback

Scratches: Pierre-Cedric Labrie, Marc-Andre Bergeron

Injured: Brendan Mikkelson

NEW YORK RANGERS

Brad Richards – Rick Nash – Marian Gaborik

Carl Hagelin – Derek Stepan – Taylor Pyatt

Mike Rupp – Brian Boyle – Benn Ferriero

Arron Asham – Jeff Halpern – Stu Bickel

Marc Staal – Michael Del Zotto

Dan Girardi – Ryan McDonagh

Anton Stralman – Matt Gilroy

Martin Biron

Henrik Lundqvist

Scratched: Steve Eminger

Injured: Ryan Callahan