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Miscues Lead To Defeat For Bolts

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 6, 2008

Updated: 01/06/2008 12:22 am

OTTAWA - Mike Lundin did exactly what he was asked to do as the puck approached him in the corner. The rookie defenseman turned his head to the left looking to find a teammate up the ice to pass to.

But then Tampa Bay's misfortunes intervened when the puck hit a loose stick and ended up on the tape of Ottawa's Jason Spezza, who quickly fed a pass to Dany Heatley in front for a third-period tying score. Though the goal wasn't directly responsible for Saturday's 4-3 overtime loss to the top-ranked team in the Eastern Conference in which Mike Fisher scored the winner, it sums up just how bad things are going for the Lightning.

Though the Lightning earned a rare road point, they fell further into the basement in the standings as they stretched their winless streak to seven games, the longest such streak since March 22 to April 3, 2002. Tampa Bay failed to hold onto leads of 2-0 and 3-1. Tampa Bay hasn't won a game since beating Toronto 2-1 on Dec. 20 and has just one road win - coming in a shootout - since Nov. 10.

On the tying goal, goaltender Johan Holmqvist - who finished with 23 saves - tried to send the puck around the boards into the corner to Lundin, who didn't see Kyle Wanvig's loose stick sitting on the ice in the corner until it was too late.

"I was looking over my shoulder before I realized the puck wasn't there," a dejected Lundin said. "It's tough ... I just tried to keep going and work hard, but it's tough when you feel like you are pretty responsible for what happened."

Lightning coach John Tortorella said they have been trying to get the defenseman to look up for the next play before getting the puck on their stick to make a pass, which is precisely what Lundin was doing.

"He's going into the corner, looking over his shoulder looking for the next play," Tortorella said. "I think he's the only guy in the building who didn't realize there's a stick there. The puck hits the stick, we lose our other defenseman behind the net and it's a pretty cheap one for Heatley, but that's what happens."

For the better part of the first two periods Tampa Bay looked to be in prime position to snap their losing ways, jumping out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Marty St. Louis and a jaw-dropping move by Vinny Lecavalier who put the puck between his legs at the top of the crease to put the puck on his backhand.

But Randy Robitaille scored the first of his two goals with 39 seconds left in the first period on the type of defensive breakdown that has been coming back to haunt Tampa Bay frequently in the past two months as they have plummeted to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

"We've given up a lot of goals during this stretch in which we've had people back in defensive positions and we just haven't found our people or figured out the coverage, and that one was a pretty simple two-on-two with backcheckers and they end up scoring a goal," Tortorella said. "Those come back to bite you against a good team like Ottawa. You need to be dead on when you beat them, and in that situation with the amount of chances you know you they are going to end up getting, you can't give up free ones like that when it's two Ottawa players vs. four Tampa Bay players and they end up scoring a goal."

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.

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