New York, which scored a total of five goals in five games before Sunday's 6-2 home win against Montreal, netted three goals in the first period and two more in the second against the tired Lightning — chasing goalie Antero Niittymaki from the net.
Brandon Dubinsky started his team's biggest scoring night of the season with a power-play tally just 1:26 in, and Prospal and Chris Drury followed to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead after the first period. Dan Girardi and Enver Lisin scored in the second as New York went ahead 5-1 despite recording only 20 shots on Niittymaki.
Including the final two periods of the win on Sunday and the first one on Monday, the Rangers scored three times in three straight periods. Eight players had goals, and 16 of New York's 18 skaters had at least one point. The Rangers came in averaging just over 2.5 goals a game.
Rangers defenseman Marc Staal, Aaron Voros — during a power play — and Christopher Higgins pushed the Rangers' lead to 8-2 in the third period against backup goalie Dustin Tokarski. Voros' goal was his first in 52 games, dating to Nov. 28, 2008. New York scored at least six goals at home in consecutive games for the first time since November 2003.
Henrik Lundqvist made 21 saves for his 22nd win. He got the better of Niittymaki in a rematch of the 2006 Olympic gold medal game also won by Lundqvist and Sweden over Finland.
Vinny Lecavalier and Alex Tanguay, who posted his eighth goal during a 5-on-3 power play in the second period, provided the offense for Tampa Bay. The Lightning were coming off a 3-2 win at Carolina on Monday night. They are 4-2-1 in the second half of back-to-back games this season, with all seven coming on the road.
Niittymaki made his sixth straight start in place of the injured Mike Smith, who is sidelined by a neck injury. Tokarski made his second NHL appearance since being recalled from Norfolk of the AHL on Jan. 14 and stopped eight of 11 shots.
Building off the momentum the Rangers built after erasing an early 2-0 deficit to Montreal on Sunday, they jumped all over the Lightning.
Just 10 seconds in, Voros fought enforcer Zenon Konopka in a long bout near the Rangers bench. Just over a minute later, Dubinsky made it 1-0 when he backhanded in a rebound of his shot after a pass from Prospal. Dubinsky has three goals and two assists in two games.
Prospal doubled the lead at 7:05 when he finished a 2-on-1 with Gaborik with a slick deke to his backhand.
The Lightning got within 2-1 at 17:21 when Lecavalier banked in a shot off of Rangers forward Higgins after Higgins had knocked Tanguay into the net as play continued.
But New York responded just 1:12 later with Drury's eighth of the season and second in two games.
Girardi made it 4-1 at 5:23 of the second when his snap shot from the right point caromed high off the foot of Lightning defenseman Andrej Meszaros and past a frustrated Niittymaki, who slammed his stick. Lisin then slammed in a loose puck with 4:21 left in the second to end Niittymaki's night.
Staal scored 6:04 into the third, Voros made it 7-2 at 11:11, and Higgins ended the onslaught at 16:32.
Notes
The Rangers hadn't scored three goals in three straight periods since a four-period run on Nov. 7-10, 1998 that included all three periods of a 10-2 win at Tampa Bay. … Tokarski stopped all five shots he faced in his NHL debut on Jan. 16 at Florida, a one-period relief stint of a 5-2 loss. … Gaborik's other four-assist game was Oct. 26, 2002.