Lightning skid hits 4 in 'frustrating' loss

That sound you hear emanating from the Lightning locker room is a perplexing thud.

How else to explain Tuesday's third-period implosion, a period in which Tampa Bay entered tied before looking dazed and confused en route to a 7-2 loss to Philadelphia?

Coming out of the two-week Olympic break, Tampa Bay looked like a team ready for another vacation in the third period as the Flyers scored five third-period goals to break open what had been a relatively tight game.

"We take a couple of penalties, momentum is rattled, we make a couple of individual mistakes, we get rattled a little bit, and the next thing you know it's 6-2," Lightning head coach Rick Tocchet said. "It's very frustrating, but for the most part I thought the guys really worked hard."

The loss was the fourth consecutive for the Lightning, who fell from ninth to 11th in the Eastern Conference standings as Atlanta and the New York Rangers jumped past Tampa Bay in the playoff chase. The Lightning sit two points out of the final playoff spot with 20 games remaining.

The recent defensive woes coupled with average goaltending is an alarming trend. In the four consecutive losses, Tampa Bay has been outscored 22-12. And on Tuesday, the trend crept in at very inopportune times.

With a pair of Steven Stamkos goals - his 36th and 37th - pacing the Lightning offense to a 2-2 tie after two periods, the Flyers started the third with a carry-over power play. And in the first minute, Olympic gold medalist Mike Richards was able to dance into the Lightning zone and waltz around a pair of defenders before slipping a quick pass to an open Simon Gagne 17 seconds into the period.

"We started the period down a man and that's a crucial part of the game right there," right wing Marty St. Louis said. "We have to get a kill there, and they have to be able to earn it - they can't just come down coast-to-coast and get a back-door tap-in. That just can't happen."

It was just the sign of things to come as Tampa Bay was whistled for three more penalties in the first six minutes of the period.

Gagne notched his second of the game at the 4:34 mark to make it 4-2. Coupled with a horrible Victor Hedman turnover in the defensive zone that led directly to a James Van Riemsdyk goal at 9:27, the Lightning never had a chance to recover.

"Hockey is a game of mistakes, and we all make our mistakes, but it's the ones that you make at the key times is what hurts you," St. Louis said. "We just couldn't dig ourselves out because we were in the box and they scored a bunch on the power play. And it felt like on a couple of those plays, we had the puck on our stick and we just didn't execute.

"I don't think the score was an indication of the game."

Antero Niittymaki, coming off a bronze medal with Finland despite not seeing any playing time, was pulled from the game after giving up six goals on 31 shots through 51 minutes. Mike Smith didn't fare much better as he was beaten on a Jeff Carter breakaway while shorthanded to cap the scoring with 5:33 left in the game.

This all coming off an opening 40 minutes of play in which Tampa Bay looked like a team that was ready to make a push for the postseason, outchancing the Flyers 16-8.

But it's the results that tell the only picture that matters at this time of the season.

"We can't afford games like that," Stamkos said. "It's tough to swallow, especially when that's a team (Philadelphia) that's ahead of us who we can catch."

Instead, Tampa Bay let a key one slip away. And that's not tough to figure out.