TAMPA, Fla. – John Grahame tied a Lightning record with his eighth consecutive win, and Martin St. Louis scored a tiebreaking goal with 6:30 left in Tampa Bay’s 5-4 victory against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.

Grahame made 17 saves in equaling the top Tampa Bay winning streak set by Nikolai Khabibulin in 2004. Ruslan Fedotenko had two goals, including an empty-netter with 33.5 seconds remaining.

St. Louis scored on a rebound shot from the left circle to put Tampa Bay up 4-3. Tim Taylor got the Lightning even at 3 when he lifted an in-close shot over Patrick Lalime at 6:15 of the third.

Fredrik Modin also scored for Tampa Bay, which has won 9 of 11. The Lightning hadn’t played since beating Chicago last Friday.

Mike Sillinger and Keith Tkachuk each had two goals and assist for the Blues, who have lost five of six and have the NHL’s worst record (5-17-3). Tkachuk got the Blues within 5-4 with 17 seconds remaining.

Modin put Tampa Bay ahead 1-0 with a power-play goal at 12:13 of the first period. Sillinger tied it at 1 just over a minute later at 13:19.

Lalime made a diving stop on Vinny Prospal and turned aside an in-close chance by Vincent Lecavalier during a Lightning power play early in the second. Tampa Bay outshot the Blues 8-1 during the first six minutes of the period.

Sillinger made it 2-1 on a rebound goal at 10:49. He scored after Grahame made a save on Tkachuk’s point-blank shot.

St. Louis went up 3-1 on Tkachuk’s rebound power-play goal with 5:25 left in the second. Fedotenko cut the Lightning deficit to 3-2 at 16:39.

Notes: St. Louis captain Dallas Drake and RW Scott Young both sat out with sore backs. … Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk has gone 18 games without a goal. He has 636 in his career, including two this season in 28 games. … Tkachuk has a point in all five games since returning from a rib injury. He has five goals and 11 points over the stretch.

AP-ES-12-08-05 2241EST

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