Florida Power Play Does In Lightning

With all the bizarre situations, odd moments and fuzzy thoughts throughout this Lightning season, one thing was crystal clear heading into Saturday - Tampa Bay had to win.

Instead, the Lightning wound up looking down the wrong end of another one-goal game, blowing a pair of two-goal leads before falling to in-state rival Florida 4-3.

Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester scored with less than one second remaining in the second period to cap a three-goal Panthers rally, dropping Tampa Bay to 6-19 in games decided by one goal this season, including overtime and shootouts.

While the Lightning have spent a good portion of this season dwelling in or near the cellar of the league standings, a 7-4-1 stretch since Dec. 23 had seen Tampa Bay climb steadily up the standings and a win could have pulled the Lightning to within eight points of a playoff spot and at least allow Tampa Bay to enter into discussions of joining a playoff race.

Not now.

"This was a big loss for us, it was kind of like our playoff game," Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet said.

The Lightning's arch enemy showed up in the form of the Florida power play. Coming into the game, Tampa Bay's penalty kill on home ice had been as solid a component as the team had, even with the worst home record in the league. In the past 10 home games coming into Saturday, the Lightning had killed off 44 of 49 power plays against, a penalty kill rate of 89.8 percent.

The Panthers, however, are the kryptonite to Tampa Bay's penalty kill. After Florida scored goals on both of its opportunities with the man advantage Saturday, its power play improved to 9-for-26 (34.6 percent) in five games against Tampa Bay this season, including 6-for-15 at the St. Pete Times Forum. Of the five times this season the Lightning have allowed two power-play goals on home ice, the Panthers have done it three times.

"There's nothing real special to their power play. It's not like there are any set plays or anything," defenseman Steve Eminger said. "It's one of those times where they are clicking, maybe just against us."

For a team that is already banged up, with five players out of the lineup due to injury and more than a couple playing through injuries, the Bolts may be facing the possibility of playing without Evgeny Artyukhin after a knee-on-knee hit with Florida's Ville Peltonen, who had to be helped off the ice.

"It's a dirty hit," Florida coach Peter DeBoer said. "We'll let the league decide what they're going to do with it."