NHL St. Louis slumps in goals

The NHL's scoring leader has found the net difficult to hit late in the postseason.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Martin St. Louis has one series remaining to top his performance in the first round of the playoffs. If he pulls it off, the Tampa Bay Lightning might be Stanley Cup champions for the first time in their 12-year history.
St. Louis, the NHL's regular season points leader, has hit the goal-scoring skids. He netted four goals in the five-game series victory over the New York Islanders, but since then he's had only two.
He showed signs of breaking out Tuesday in the Lightning's 4-1 loss in the opener of the finals against the Calgary Flames. St. Louis had his first goal in six games after missing on a few earlier scoring chances.
"That's a positive, I guess," St. Louis said Wednesday. "But scoring chances mean nothing if you don't bear down and capitalize on them."
Leading scorer
It's not as though St. Louis has been struggling. Even though he isn't putting pucks in the net at his regular season pace, he leads playoff scorers with 19 points in 17 games. That's one more than teammate Brad Richards and Calgary captain Jarome Iginla.
"Sometimes there is not a lot out there," St. Louis said. "Playoff hockey sometimes is that way.
"To me, that's great, because we have to win games and have different guys stepping up and different heroes every night."
St. Louis was that guy in the first round. He started with two pointless games before rallying to have four goals and an assist in the final three wins over the Islanders.
His overtime goal in Game 5 clinched Tampa Bay's second series win ever. It's that kind of production the Lightning want in Game 2 against Calgary tonight.
Ups and downs
"It has been a long playoff and my game has gone up and down," St. Louis said. "I feel my game is on the way up. I know [Tuesday] was a loss but I did something I hadn't done in a while. I am going to take that into Game 2 and hopefully capitalize on the chances I can get."
If he and the Lightning don't, they likely will be facing a big hole when the series shifts to Calgary for Games 3 and 4.
The Lightning are behind in a series for the first time, but that is nothing new to Calgary opponents.
The Flames started each of their four postseason series this year on the road, and three times they skated off with a victory. By virtue of their win Tuesday, the underdogs from the West have a chance to take a commanding lead back home.
"There is a little familiarity to the situation we are in," defenseman Robyn Regehr said Wednesday.