Tampa Bay Trip South Is Fruitless

SUNRISE - Tampa Bay trips to the BankAtlantic Center might as well be direct deposits of two points into Florida's account.

The Lightning once again showed up in South Florida on Saturday hoping to finally cash in on a chance to break even. Instead, it was another business transaction that left Tampa Bay in the red following a 4-2 loss to its in-state rival.

The Lightning fell into a tie with Los Angeles for the last spot overall in the league with a third consecutive loss, but still occupy the No. 29 spot based on Tampa Bay having played one fewer game than the Kings.

Tomas Vokoun kept the Panthers' playoff hopes alive by stopping 35 shots as Tampa Bay fell to 10-22-8 all-time in South Florida and 2-10-2 in the past 14 trips. The Lightning have not won the series in Florida since going 2-0-1 during the 2002-03 season.

"I don't know why that is, certain buildings, for whatever reason we struggle in," defenseman Dan Boyle said.

Actually, the Lightning didn't struggle much Saturday night with the exception of the first period. After getting just three shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes, Tampa Bay spent the next 40 minutes peppering Vokoun, registering 17 shots in each of the final two periods.

"I have no beef with how hard the team played, we just couldn't score," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "I thought we dominated most of the second half of that game. Vokoun was the difference. That's why they have won so many games here 8-0-1 on their little run. He's played that well."

Tampa Bay's power play, which had been so effective of late, having produced at least a goal in five consecutive, finished 0-for-5. With the Lightning trailing by one after Junior Lessard and Nathan Horton traded goals 75 seconds apart, Florida was called for four penalties in a six-minute span - interrupted only by a hooking call to Vinny Lecavalier. During that time, the Lightning had a pair of brief two-man advantages totaling 32 seconds.

Vokoun, however, turned Tampa Bay aside at every chance, stopping all seven Lightning power-play shots and turning aside 16 of the 17 he faced in the second period.

"He made a lot of great saves," said Lecavalier, who had seven shots on goal. "I thought I had him beat a few times. I wish maybe I would have went higher, but he was always there, he was very quick and read the play very well.

"We had some great opportunities. I think the saves he made in the second period kept them in the game."

The Panthers carried a 1-0 lead into the first intermission following a misplay by Smith where he gloved down a puck that deflected off Filip Kuba, but after he dropped the puck in an attempt to whack it out of the zone, he instead put it right on the tape of Florida defenseman Jay Bouwmeester for a shot into the open net at 3:31 of first period.