Bolts Blow Two Goal Lead to Panthers, Fall 4-3

By JC De La Torre

The Tampa Bay Lightning dominated the first period of their cross-state rivals, the Florida Panthers, outshooting Florida 11-4 and outscoring them 3-1 going into the first intermission. Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, twenty minutes isn't an entire game and the Panthers came roaring back with three unanswered goals in the second period to pull off a 4-3 victory.

Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos was a healthy scratch for the second time in five games as the Lightning continue on their strength and conditioning program for the 2008 #1 overall pick.

Vincent Lecavalier opened up the scoring at the 4:37 mark of the 1st and Vaclav Prospal added a power play goal at 13:36 to give the Lightning a 2-0 advantage. Florida got on the board late in the first with Greg Campbell's 9th of the season. A minute later, the Lightning answered with Ryan Malone's 13th goal of the season. That would be the extent of the Tampa Bay scoring.

The second period was all Panthers, as they received goals from Cory Stillman and Richard Zednik, outshooting Tampa Bay 13-9. With only one second left in the period and the game tied at 3, Jay Bouwmeester fired the puck toward the net on the power play and it got across the goal line before time expired, giving the Panthers a 4-3 lead they wouldn't relenquish.

In the third, the Lightning peppered Florida goalie Tomas Vokoun, who relieved Craig Anderson after Tampa Bay's third goal, outshooting the Panthers 13-4 but Vokoun make all thirteen saves and Florida held on for the victory.

"We had started the game great," Prospal told the St. Pete Times, "We didn't give them anything in the first period. In the second period, we gave them all the momentum."

Three of a Kind - Tampa Bay wins their 3rd straight

By JC De La Torre

The Tampa Bay Lightning's stars aligned for a 6-4 smashing of cross state rivals, the Florida Panthers in a game that was not as close as the score indicated. The Lightning's Vincent Lecavalier nabbed two goals and an assist while Martin St. Louis and Ryan Malone scored four points each as Tampa Bay won their third straight game for the first time in the Rick Tocchet era.

Steven Stamkos opened up the scoring at the 7:06 mark of the first, then, midway through the period, Evgeny Artyukhin on a rare power play chance powered home a goal on a 5-on-3 opportunity to give the Lightning a 2-0 going into first intermission. Tampa Bay outshot the Panthers a remarkable 21-3 in the first and it was the play of Panther goalie Tomas Vokoun that kept this one from being ugly early.

The second period got a little dicey for Tampa Bay. Usually their strongest period, it was the Panthers who showed some fire coming out of the dressing room as David Booth sliced the Bolts lead to 2-1 at the 3:09 mark of the 2nd. A little over a minute later, Vincent Lecavalier would net his first of the night to restore the Lightning's two goal cushion. They say the two goal lead is the most uncomfortable in hockey and Tampa Bay found out why. With Tampa Bay defensemen Matt Smaby and Paul Ranger off for interference and tripping respectively, the Panthers took advantage of their 5-on-3 advantage, getting a goal Nathan Horton at the 16:27 mark of the second period. Seconds later, the Panthers would strike again on the second half of the two man advantage, this time it was David Booth getting his second of the period and Tampa Bay's commanding lead suddenly evaporated. Vincent Lecavalier found a gift in the closing seconds of the period as he gloved a flying puck, dropped it quickly to the ice and blasted it past Vokoun with only five second left in the period to give Tampa Bay the lead going into intermission.

The Bolts reestablished their dominance (boy, its been a long time since I typed that) in the third getting a beautiful spin-a-rama goal from Malone to make it 5-3 and then a crazy goal by Marty St. Louis. St. Louis missed badly but stayed in front of the net, the puck ricocheted off the boards, right back to his stick and St. Louis dropped it past a thoroughly confused Vokoun to give the Lightning a 6-3 advantage at the 7:46 mark of the third. Six goals was a season high for Tampa Bay. Stephen Weiss' seeing-eye goal at the 13:57 mark sliced the lead to 6-4 but that would be as close as the Panthers would get. Tampa Bay killed off a questionable holding call on Ryan Malone and missed a couple chances at an empty netter for Lecavalier to get his first hat trick of the season.

"The last three games, I really feel guys are on the same page - the most we've been on the same page all year," right wing Marty St. Louis told the Tampa Tribune, "We're seeing it in the results."

Tampa Bay's third straight victory gets the Lightning to the 10 win plateau (finally) and shockingly gets the Bolts out of the cellar in the Southeast division with a 10-16-9 record that's good for 29 points. Despite their little surge, the Bolts remain 10 points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Lightning go for their season high fourth straight victory Tuesday night against the Montreal Canadiens.

Break Up the Bolts - Lightning win 2nd Straight

By JC De La Torre

The Tampa Bay Lightning won their 2nd straight game - Lightning fans, that's called a winning streak - for the first time since October and did it in shocking fashion - a shoot out victory over the Florida Panthers 4-3. Its only the second victory for the Lighting in a shoot out this season (Tampa Bay is now 2-6 in shoot outs, snapping a 5 game losing streak in games decided by shootout) and the Lightning will go for their first 3 game win streak of the season tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum on the second half of the home-and-home with the Panthers.

The teams exchanged goals in the first period with Tampa Bay's Steve Eminger opening the scoring at 11:24 mark, then Florida's Keith Ballard tied it with only 1:32 left in the period. Tampa Bay took control of the game late in the second, getting goals from Mark Recchi and Evgeny Artyukhin with two minutes of each other, the last coming with only 1:23 left in the period to make it 3-1 after two.

The Lightning held that advantage until the 13:37 mark of the third, when former Bolt Corey Stillman converted on the power play to shave the Tampa Bay lead to one. It would hold up until the final minute of the game, when the Panthers pulled their goalie for the extra attacker and it paid off with 0:14 seconds left when Bryan McCabe tied it at 3, a devastating blow to a Tampa Bay hockey team struggling for victories.

Still, the Lightning proved some resiliency, fighting through the overtime and getting it to the shoot out, where Ryan Malone won it with a wrister past goaltender Craig Anderson and sent the Bolts into celebration.

"We talk about building on things," Steve Eminger told the St. Pete Times, "We played a pretty good game, and we ran into some trouble in the end, had some penalty trouble, and that will happen. To build on it, you have to find some way to win, and if it's a shootout, then it's a shootout. We just have to keep on."

Tampa Bay goes for double digit victories tonight as they remain the only team in the NHL not to reach 10 victories on the season. Goalie Mike Smith was solid again, making 25 saves on 28 shots.

Rally Falls Short, But Bolts Are Turning it Around

By JC De La Torre

Under former Head Coach Barry Melrose, the Tampa Bay Lightning looked like dead men skating. Under new interim Head Coach Rick Tocchet, the team showed passion, guts, and determination in blistering a Lightning team record 52 shots on goal and rallying from a 3 goal deficit before finally falling to their hated rival Florida Panthers in their albatross - the shootout.

Tampa Bay outshot their opponent in each of the 3 periods for the first time this season, but in the 1st it got them little, as the Panthers Bryan McCabe and David Booth found the back the net for a 2-0 lead. McCabe scored again in the 2nd period on the power play to stake Florida to a 3-0 advantage and seemingly insurmountable lead with stellar Panthers Goalie Tomas Vokoun between the pipes but midway through the 2nd, the game turned. Steven Stamkos, who played a career high 17:55 alternating between the top two lines and leading all Lightning players with 9 shots on the night, drove toward the net, setting up a scoring chance for the snakebit Radim Vrbata. Vrbata finally broke through, depositing the puck to cut the Panthers advantage to 3-1.

The goal energized the Lightning, who dominated the game from that point on. Tampa Bay drew within one on a Gretzky-esque play behind the net, feeding a charging Evgeny Artyukhin who jammed it in to cut the Panthers lead to 1. Defenseman Steve Eminger, acquired in the Matt Carle Philly deal, completed a 3 point night with his first goal as a member of the Tampa Bay Lighting and ended a goal drought of 63 games, tying the game at 3 with a blast from the point with only 2:51 left in the game.

That goal got the Bolts a point in the standings after being blown out (at least on the scoreboard) through the first half of the game. Tomas Vokoun may have been the only reason the Panthers emerged from this one victorious for Florida. Vokoun was outstanding, making 49 saves, including a stick check of Vaclav Prospal who was charging to the net, stopping a last second shot by Mark Recchi wide with a stick. Vokoun also benefited from a little luck, as with three second left in overtime, Paul Ranger's slapper went off the glove of a spralling Panthers defenseman and trickled wide.

Many of Steven Stamkos' minutes were spent alternating between Center and Right Wing on the number one line with Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis.

"I felt like I was in the game," Stamkos told the St. Petersburg Times, "I had a ton of shots and felt great. We dominated them tonight, outshot them and outplayed them in their end. When you're not winning, these games slip by you."

Tocchet agreed but still believed there was a lot to work on, "There were so many good things," Tocchet said, "(On the penalty kill that failed twice against the league's worst power play) We have to start boxing out a little better, The defense has to start taking sticks."

As for their sixth shootout loss, Vokoun was again the difference. After Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier and Jussi Jokinen and Florida's Stephen Weiss failed, Nathan Horton - Lightning Killer extraordinare, deked and found the back of the net past Lightning goalie Mike Smith. Martin St. Louis was stoned on his last chance, giving the Panthers the victory.

Tocchet took responsibility for another failed shootout for the Bolts, telling the Times, "It's probably our fault, we have not practiced penalty shots much this year. It's on my list, trust me, on the top."

"Tocch", as he's called by his players, better hurry as the shootout right now is the difference between Tampa Bay being near the bottom of the Eastern Conference and contending for a playoff spot. If Tampa Bay had just taken 3 of the 6 shootouts they have lost, they would be 8th in the Eastern Conference right now instead of 13th.

Battle of Florida All Panthers

By JC De La Torre

The Tampa Bay Lightning may have finally hit rock bottom. In the battle of Florida, the Florida Panthers took out a paddle, pulled the Bolts pants down and spanked them 4-0. The Lightning finish the abysmal road trip 1-4 and their chemistry in shambles. The day before the game, Head Coach Barry Melrose once again blasted the team's lack of heart, then walked out on them. Don't be surprised if Melrose puts in for a week's vacation after this one.

Mike Smith made 27 saves for the Bolts but wasn't very sharp, giving up some soft goals tonight. Meanwhile, the black hole known as the Lightning defense continued to allow the competition to enjoy puck possession and loads of chances to the hated Panthers. Florida came in with the league's worst power play, but the Lightning didn't care, allowing the Panthers to score on 2 of their 4 power play opportunities. McCabe and Horton scored goals for Florida, while Gregory Campbell announced himself to the season with his first two goals of the year.

The one bright spot for the Lightning was Ryan Craig in the closing moments of the hockey game, showing Tampa Bay does have some semblance of a pulse by dropping gloves with Nick Boyton. Tampa Bay slumps to 5-6-4 14 pts on the season, 6 points behind in the Southeast division trailing the Washington Capitals. They are currently 12th in the Eastern Conference.

JC De La Torre is an author of Science Fiction/Fantasy and other realms of Speculative Fiction - check out his latest works at JC Delatorre.com