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Flyers send Lightning to fourth straight loss

Dec 29, 2007 - 10:29 PM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Not even a game at home against the Philadelphia Flyers could get things turned around for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Joffrey Lupul scored on a penalty shot and added a pair of assists as the Flyers defeated the slumping Lightning, 4-2, on Saturday.

It was Tampa Bay's fourth straight loss. The Lightning entered with a 6-1-0 edge over Philadelphia at the St. Pete Times Forum since January 2003, with that lone loss coming by one goal.

"It's frustrating," Lightning veteran center Chris Gratton said. "If we knew how to fix it, we would. When you go through times like this, everything seems magnified and it kind of snowballs.

"The only thing you can hope for is a bounce or something positive to happen where things change and goes in the other direction. Right now, it's not one or two things. It's a bunch of things."

Gratton also said that the possible sale of the team had nothing to do with the team's play.

"Outside the locker room is not a distraction," he said. "The team has done a good job of keeping that out of here. Our job is to come here and play hockey."

Lupul put the Flyers ahead early. The right wing broke free down the right side, forcing Tampa Bay defenseman Brad Lukowich to pull him down.

A penalty shot was awarded to Lupul, and he slipped the puck between goaltender Karri Ramo's legs at the 7:13 mark. Ramo finished with 18 saves.

"It was a big night for us," Lupul said. "We've had a lot of problems in this building in the past, and to come in here and get the second win in a row is big for us.

"We've had some good wins and a lot of times we've followed it up with an average performance and gave away games. We followed it up tonight with a great performance and that's a real positive thing."

The Lightning struck back a little over four minutes later on the power play, when Vincent Lecavalier took a cross-ice pass from Martin St. Louis and blasted it past Martin Biron from right circle for his league-leading 26th goal.

The game stayed tied until Mike Knuble put home his own rebound past Ramo with 56 seconds left in the second period. Knuble's power-play tally came after receiving a pass from Jeff Carter near the left faceoff circle.

Philadelphia's lead grew to 3-1 early in the third period when Lupul fed the puck to defenseman Braydon Coburn, whose shot from the point was tipped by Scott Hartnell past Ramo just 31 seconds in.

Just under four minutes later, Kimmo Timonen put in a short rebound off a shot by Daniel Briere that trickled to open side of net to make it 4-1.

"I think we played a desperate hockey team tonight," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "It's well publicized how they're playing. I think the first period we did a poor job breaking out and all the opportunities we gave them. We had a game plan that wasn't executed very well.

"In the second, we got into a little trouble there as they pressured us down the wall, but as the game progressed, we got some odd-man rushes and got the lead that was good enough to win."

Tampa Bay got a goal from Vaclav Prospal at the 8:08 mark, but could not get another one past Biron, who finished with 31 saves.

"He was good," Lupul said of Biron. "He held us in there when we were having problems getting pucks out of our end. That's why he's there and why we count on him to keep us in games on the road."