Burns: 3 Things from a second-consecutive victory

The Tampa Bay Lightning hadn't won consecutive games in over a month, not since they strung together four-straight wins from November 11-19.
Hopefully, Thursday's 5-2 home victory over the St. Louis Blues is the catalyst to another lengthy run.

The Bolts followed up a dominant 4-1 performance on Tuesday against Detroit with a come-from-behind win over the Blues, a team that had won six straight over the Lightning coming into Thursday's contest.
The Lightning went down 2-0 in the first period but didn't fold.
Instead, they found the resiliency that's served them so well the past two seasons and rallied to score five goals in a row to dispatch the Blues.
The Lightning will get a chance to make it three-straight victories on Friday when they travel to Washington for the final game before the Christmas break.
There was a lot to like about Tampa Bay's game on Thursday. We'll break down the positives in 3 Things from a win over St. Louis.

1. NO PANIC
For the second-straight time this season against St. Louis, the Lightning fell behind 2-0 in the first period to the Blues.
Earlier this month at Scottrade Center, the Bolts eventually went down 4-1 before rallying, their comeback effort falling just short in a 5-4 defeat.
On Thursday, the Bolts didn't wait quite so long to turn the game around. Tampa Bay seized control in the second period, scoring a pair of goals to tie it up.
In the third, the Lightning continued to surge. After Alex Killorn netted the go-ahead goal, the Bolts never gave St. Louis a chance to get back in the game because they wouldn't give the Blues the puck, the final 20 minutes a training exercise in how to close out a game with the lead.
So what changed between the first and second periods?
"You win in this league, you've got to work," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said in his postgame press conference. "I'll never sit here and say our team's not working, but it's working in a different way. It's just like in the first period, we were trying to skill our way through the game. And you can't do that. You've got to work your way through the game. Skill will take over after that. And that's what we did in those last two periods."
In rallying from a 2-0 deficit for the third time this season, the Bolts showed a resiliency that has eluded them during their late-November/early-December slump.
"It was a great response," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. "We came out slow in the first. We weren't happy with that, and the way we turned it on in the second period was fun to watch. I think we deserved the outcome of the game the way we played in the final 40 minutes."
If the Lightning play future games the same way they did the last 40 minutes of the St. Louis victory, there will be plenty more positive results to come.

2. NET-FRONT PRESENCE
Since becoming a regular on the Lightning power play almost out of necessity due to injuries, Brian Boyle has provided an option in front of the net the Bolts were missing previously.
The 6-foot-6, 244-pound forward has made a living in recent games carving out space in front of the opposing goal and deflecting shots into the net or, at the very least, providing a sizable distraction for the goaltender.
As a result, the Lightning power play has thrived, ranking third in the NHL and scoring a league-best 28 goals coming into Thursday's game.
Against St. Louis, Boyle's big body sparked the Bolts yet again.
Trailing 2-0, the Lightning earned a power play nine minutes into the second period, and Boyle immediately went to work. The puck swung around to Victor Hedman, who unleashed a powerful shot from the point. Boyle boxed out in front and got his blade on the shot, deflecting the puck past Jake Allen for his eighth goal of the season and cutting the Bolts' deficit to 2-1.
"We were skating," Boyle said. "We had the puck more. When were in the o zone, we had the puck more. We caused some turnovers on the forecheck. You're going to have opportunities to go to the net. When we do, I think we've done a pretty good job of that. We've tried to get traffic in. We've tried to get more shots there, and that's what's given us success.
"When we're playing well, you're going to see a lot of that."
Michael Bournival's game-tying goal at 17:27 of the second period was almost a mirror image of Boyle's. Jason Garrison unleashed a shot from the point, and Bournival worked his way to the front of the net to get a piece of the puck and tip it past Allen.
The Lightning dominated the game after the first period, and net-front presence was the spark that got it started in the second.

3. LIMITING POWER PLAYS
In losing 5-4 to the Blues in St. Louis on December 1, the Lightning surrendered seven power-play opportunities to the Blues and gave up goals on three of them, tying a season high for most power-play goals given up to an opponent.
Prior to Thursday's game, Brian Boyle said the Bolts were pretty good on the four St. Louis power plays they killed in that early December loss, but they weren't consistent enough to kill all seven.
The Lightning went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill in Tuesday's win over Detroit, holding an opponent without a power-play goal for the first time in five games.
On Thursday, the Lightning never got an opportunity to show off their improving penalty kill because they stayed out of the box, save for a hooking penalty handed out to Tanner Richard early in the second period and a minor to Valtteri Filppula for hooking, which was negated by a simultaneous penalty to the Blues' Robby Fabbri for embellishment.
Penalties have plagued the Lightning over the last couple weeks , both the number of penalties the Bolts have taken as well as the inopportune times they've taken them.
Against St. Louis, the Lightning penalty kill continued to trend upward, mainly because they weren't even called upon.