Burns: 3 things we learned from a bounce-back win in New York

The Tampa Bay Lightning regained first place in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference after blowing out the New York Rangers 7-3 at Madison Square Garden Friday night, ending the Bolts three-game losing skid, tied for their longest of the season.

Sure it might not last long as the Bruins own two games in hand and play Saturday at home versus Florida while Tampa Bay has the night off, but it was good to see the Lightning respond with a dominant effort a night after losing the top spot for the first time since mid-October.
The Lightning gave up the opening goal for the fourth-consecutive game, but unlike those previous three contests, climbing out of the early hole proved no problem for the Bolts, who exploded for five-straight goals and seven total to win going away.
Tampa Bay set a number of franchise records in the runaway. With 108 points on the season, the 2017-18 team matched the previous all-time high set three seasons earlier by the 2014-15 team. Their 52 road points are also a franchise best, one point better than the 51 put up in 2003-04.
Jon Cooper picked up his 240th career coaching win to pass John Tortorella for most in Lightning history.
And Yanni Gourde tallied a pair of assists for his 60th and 61st points of the season to pass Ondrej Palat for second most all-time in a season by a Lightning rookie and move to within a point of Brad Richards' record of 62 from 2000-01.
So how were the Lightning able to turn things around against the Rangers?

1. STAMKOS LIGHTS THE FUSE
The Lightning's leader for penalty minutes this season isn't one of the usual suspects like Cedric Paquette or Alex Killorn or Victor Hedman.
It's Steven Stamkos.
That's right, the Lightning captain and gifted playmaker came into Friday's contest with 53 penalty minutes, five more than Hedman and Yanni Gourde.
Against the Rangers, he picked up another 19 penalty minutes, a career high for a game and a Lightning season high.
And it was what he did to earn those 19 minutes in the box that might have given the Bolts the spark they needed to rally against the Rangers.
With Tampa Bay trailing 1-0 following Brady Skjei's goal three-quarters through the first period, Ryan McDonagh laid a clean, legal hit on the Rangers Pavel Buchnevich, who took exception to being upended and retaliated by sticking his hip into the path of Nikita Kucherov during a rush into the zone and knocking the Russian off his feet.
Stamkos was closest to the play and immediately engaged Buchnevich in a fight, drawing stick taps against the boards from his teammates on the bench. Stamkos was hit with a five minute fighting major, an instigator penalty and a 10-minute misconduct, keeping him out of most of the second period.
But it was also around this time when the Lightning awoke.
Just 3:15 in the second period, Cedric Paquette took a few jabs at a rolling puck in front of the crease and jammed one underneath Ondrej Pavelec to level the score 1-1. Alex Killorn scored 1:18 later, converting a four-man rush after skating into the slot and scoring on his own rebound to make it 2-1 Lightning.
"It was one of those things where it looked like somebody had kind of (taken) a liberty at Kuch," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said of Stamkos' fight with Buchnevich. "Stammer saw it and did what he had to do to stick up for his teammates. It's the reason he's got a 'C' on his jersey. It was tough to lose him for 17 minutes but it went miles. He wasn't on the ice, but what he did lifted our team."
It was tough for Tampa Bay to carry over the same emotion and intensity that they played with in Boston 24 hours later against the Rangers.
After a lethargic first period, Stamkos lit the fuse, and the Lightning exploded the scoreboard.

2. SECONDARY SCORING RETURNS
J.T. Miller has found the back of the net with regularity since joining the Lightning from the Rangers at the trade deadline. He added another goal Friday to give him nine in 15 games with the Bolts.
Victor Hedman has picked up his goal pace of late, scoring four in the last seven games for 15 on the season, just one shy of matching his career high.
And, of course, Nikita Kucherov is one of the NHL's best goal scorers and is closing in on another 40-goal season.
But outside of those three, the Lightning hadn't gotten much help in the scoring department from the rest of the team. The secondary scoring that had been a hallmark of this team throughout much of the season was suddenly MIA.
It was a different story against the Rangers, however.
Cedric Paquette had scored just three times this season entering Friday's game, but he provided the Lightning with their first goal and added another 1:53 into the third period to extend the Bolts' lead to 4-1. Paquette's multi-goal game was just the fourth of his career.
"We've seen what he can do in the playoff runs, very physical guy, a guy who's going to do everything right," Stamkos said of Paquette. "And he's got the offensive skill set where he can chip in with goals and nice plays. I remember our Stanley Cup run, he was great. It's been a tough year in terms of him having to sit out and stay mentally prepared, so I thought he did a great job and got rewarded tonight."
Alex Killorn and Brayden Point each had just one goal in their last 10 games coming into New York. Killorn scored the go-ahead goal Friday, and Point tallied his sixth multi-goal game of the season (3rd this season). Point also became the second Lightning player to reach 30 goals this season, joining Kucherov.
Dan Girardi got into the act too, scoring in the last minute of the game for his fifth goal, the most he's put up since the 2013-14 season.
In the playoffs, it's usually the third and fourth lines and secondary scoring that can tilt a series. If the Lightning are getting production out of those groups, that will play a big factor in their chances of advancing.

3. FIGHTING THROUGH ADVERSITY
After playing their most physical, intense contest of the season a night earlier in Boston and coming out on the wrong end, losing their division and conference lead in the process, a letdown was inevitable for the Lightning, especially facing a Rangers team already out of playoff contention.
Plus, the Bolts were playing the second half of a back-to-back set. And three of their players - J.T. Miller, Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi - were skating at Madison Square Garden for the first time since they left the team via free agency (Girardi) or trade (Miller and McDonagh), so their emotions would be sky high early on.
It's no wonder then the Lightning came out somewhat flat in the first period. It's not that the Bolts played poorly in the first, it's just they played with so much fire in Boston, anything less than that was going to be seen as a letdown
After falling behind in the first, the Lightning responded to take control in the second period, where they're a NHL-best plus-34 on the season. And they effectively ended the game in the third with a quick flurry strike early to push their lead to 5-1.
The way the Lightning shook off the early setback and overwhelmed the Rangers over the final two periods was a great sign for the team with now four games remaining in the regular season.
"It was an emotional game for a ton of reasons," Cooper said. "One, we just came off an emotional game 24 hours earlier in which we were on the wrong side of. And then you've got to travel and the back to back. Then you go through, it was weird because it was a long pregame, and that was emotional just with the award ceremony and for our guys. It was a tough first for us just to get our legs back. But I like the way we responded in the second and the third, and the guys did what they had to do."