Bolts Rally Against Blues, Then Fall

Injuries, illness, trades and retirement possibilities left the new-look Lightning taking on the likeness of a shipwrecked vessel in shallow seas heading into Friday's game.

With only 11 forwards and 19 players suited up, Tampa Bay could have folded after twice falling behind by two goals. But the Lightning rallied with three goals in the third to pull even before falling 4-3 in overtime on a Brad Boyes goal 27 seconds into the extra period.

"There is still a lot of character in that room," said defenseman Cory Murphy, who logged a career-high 30:16. "I don't think there is one guy who doesn't want to come out and play hard every night; there's still a lot of games to play and there is definitely a lot of character in there."

Tampa Bay was missing 20-goal scorer Ryan Malone, who was out with the flu and is questionable for tonight's game against Carolina. Rookie Paul Szczechura was a scratch with a banged-up wrist, while veteran forward Gary Roberts is home pondering retirement.

Through 40 minutes, Tampa Bay looked like it was in a fog, falling behind 2-0, getting outshot 23-14, and handing out odd-man rushes like they were promotional giveaways to the first three St. Louis players up the ice.

"A young team like St. Louis, we just let them play like we were in a practice game," said goaltender Karri Ramo, who stopped 32 shots. "We weren't checking guys, we weren't battling hard enough, we were losing pucks and we weren't playing hard enough."

The Lightning woke up on third-period goals by Marty St. Louis at 3:28 and Matt Pettinger at 12:10 to cut the deficit to 3-2. Then with 15.7 seconds left, rookie Steven Stamkos fired a one-timer from the left point for his 14th goal of the season - surpassing Vinny Lecavalier's rookie output - to send the game into overtime and earn a point, which kept Tampa Bay from falling into 29th position in the league standings.

"We were a lot better in the third. We came back alive, but it was a roller coaster," Ramo said. "We need to do it for three periods."

The Lightning are facing another game tonight against Carolina in a rare home back-to-back situation in likely the same scenario - not knowing who will be available once the puck is ready to drop.

New acquisition Martins Karsums played 10:59 in his debut with two shots and a minus-1, while defenseman Noah Welch had four hits and two blocked shots in 23:06. But it's not just the new faces looking to make an impression in games like Friday.

"You're just looking for certain guys to keep working because there are a lot of jobs on the line," Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet said.