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Lightning Stumble In 2-1 Shootout Loss To Montreal

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Tampa Bay's Evgeny Artyukhin tangles with Montreal's Mike Komisarek during overtime.

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 31, 2008

Updated: 12/31/2008 12:42 am

TAMPA - The Lightning must be tired of ending up on the wrong side of the ledger in the league's skill competition.

The shootout again shot down Tampa Bay's chance at victory as Montreal took a 2-1 decision Tuesday night to snap the Lightning's three-game winning streak.

Goaltender Mike Smith was solid in net for Tampa Bay, stopping 29 shots, but the Lightning fell to 2-7 in shootouts this season (3-10 in overtime) after Alex Kovalev and Maxim Lapierre scored.

"We grabbed a point, and it was really a great hockey game," Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet said. "Shootouts are really tough, because they are confidence-builders if you win them, you can really take off when you win those things. We've been on a little bit of a streak, but we needed the two points, bad, really bad."

Although the winning streak ended at three, Tampa Bay tied a season-best streak of four consecutive games with a point, earning seven of a possible eight to close out the calendar year,

"I think we still played like we have been, and we did a lot of good things tonight," said Smith, who has allowed 15 shootout goals on 40 attempts this season. "We have to come out of this game with a positive, and that's a top team in this league and we are battling to find our mojo. I think we played a pretty decent hockey game, so we can't get too down."

Vinny Prospal scored his first goal since Dec. 6 in the first period, but Guillaume Latendresse tied it 46 seconds into the third. Evgeny Artyukhin had a chance to win it in the waning minutes of overtime when he had Carey Price down, but he couldn't get enough lift on the shot.

"I don't know how he got that. I should have shot it higher," Artyukhin said.

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835.

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