Lightning  2    Rangers  8

Tampa Bay Lightning (19-19-10) at New York Rangers (23-19-7), 7 p.m.

Sports Network | January 19, 2010

(Sports Network) - The New York Rangers will try to build off an impressive victory when they welcome the struggling Tampa Bay Lightning for tonight's battle at Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers ended a three-game losing streak and improved to 4-2-3 this month with Sunday's decisive 6-2 win over visiting Montreal. It marked New York's highest goal output since beating Columbus, 7-4, on November 23. The Rangers had just one goal in their previous three games combined.

Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan each had two goals as the Rangers downed the Habs and also ended a long home scoreless drought.

Callahan had two assists, while Dubinsky had one helper. Marian Gaborik added a goal and two assists for the Rangers, who had gone 147 minutes, two seconds since their last goal at Madison Square Garden -- Callahan's empty-netter in a 5-2 win over Dallas on January 6. After that, New York was blanked in consecutive home games by New Jersey and Ottawa.

Henrik Lundqvist turned away 18 shots for the Rangers, who erased a two-goal deficit en route to the easy win over the Habs.

"It's a big character game for us, not only to score six goals but to come back from a 2-0 deficit at home where we've been struggling of late," Callahan said. "So it was a good game for us goal-wise but also we showed some character in the room."

The Rangers are just 11-11-4 as the host this year and will play their next two games on the road in Philadelphia and Montreal.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay bounced back from a home-and-home sweep at the hands of Florida to earn Monday's road win over Carolina. Steve Downie scored the winning goal midway through the third period as the Lightning topped the Hurricanes, 3-2, at RBC Center.

Ryan Malone and Vincent Lecavalier also scored for the Lightning, who have won three of their last five contests.

Antero Niittymaki made 20 saves for Tampa Bay, which beat the Hurricanes for just the second time in the last 11 meetings. The Lightning also snapped an eight-game skid on the road against Carolina, winning at RBC Center for the first time since November 8, 2007.

"When you play one goal games, a heavy or fluke goal can win the game so it was a resilient game for us," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said.

Tonight's test marks the end of a three-game road trip for Tampa, which is just 8-13-5 as the visiting team this season. The Lightning will begin a four- game homestand Thursday evening against Toronto and will also welcome Atlanta, Montreal and Anaheim during the residency.

Tampa Bay slammed the Rangers, 5-1, when the clubs met in Florida on November 27. New York has still taken four of five and seven of 10 overall from Tampa and the Lightning have lost four of their last five as the guest in this series.