BOX SCORE

TAMPA, Fla. -- They were competitive, they were strong where they had to be, but in the end, a few miscues ruined it all.
 
A lazy check. A tip off a screen.
 
That’s all it took Monday night at the Tampa Bay Times Forum for the equally-struggling Lightning to put another dagger into the Flyers' playoff hopes with a 4-2 victory.
 
“It’s so frustrating,” said Max Talbot, the team’s best forward over the last two games. “We played a good game, but not good enough to get two points.
 
“We competed, but we had two mistakes and it cost us. Now we got to look at Sunday [in Pittsburgh].”
 
Instead of going into their five-day spring break with a two-game winning streak in which they increased their fragile odds of making the playoffs, the Flyers must now sit and watch to see if they slip farther behind in the Eastern Conference standings. The loss dropped them to the 12th seed with the Lightning moving to 11th. Both teams have 27 points, but Tampa Bay has a game in hand. The Flyers are five points out of a playoff spot.
 
“Hopefully, they lose and there’s not too many three-point games,” said Scott Hartnell, who was benched and then demoted for taking a stupid roughing penalty in the second period.
 
“We can’t do much of anything but have a good week of practice and keep focused and ready to go.”
 
The Flyers are off the next two days before practice resumes on Thursday.
 
“You’d rather be playing games, trying to make a difference in the standings,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “There’s nothing we can do about that.”
 
The key mistake in this one was the easy goal from Tom Pyatt the Bolts scored to take a 2-1 lead late in the opening stanza.
 
Luke Schenn made a half-hearted attempt at a board check on Tyler Johnson coming into the zone. Johnson went right around him, tossed the puck across and Pyatt scored at the net.
 
It’s the kind of play that has harmed the Flyers all year and ruined otherwise solid efforts, turning potential wins into losses.
 
“We had a good game,” Flyer captain Claude Giroux said. “It’s frustrating to see we can’t come up with two points when we play a pretty good game.”
 
Much like last Friday’s 2-1 shootout win over the Devils, the Flyers were fiercely competitive.
 
It was 2-2 going into the third period. Matt Read nailed the crossbar six minutes in after Jakub Voracek nailed the left post earlier in the game.
 
“That deflection in the third was a tough one,” Giroux said. “We have to find a way to make it happen.”
 
Goalie Anders Lindback was under attack much of the last period as the Flyers pressed for the go-ahead goal. Instead, Teddy Purcell got a deflection at 9:25 to break the tie off a long shot from Steven Stamkos along the boards. That was the game-winner on goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.
 
“It was a screen and tip and went past me,” Bryzgalov said. “I saw the puck was coming to my shoulder but he hit with the stick and [redirected].”
 
The big issue in this one was the benching of Hartnell after his penalty that saw Zac Rinaldo move to the first line. Hartnell sat most of the period, played a little power play, then returned to his line at the very end of the game.
 
“That’s what it’s going to be ... I finished my check [on Cory Conacher] and hit him a couple extra times where I shouldn’t have,” Hartnell said.
 
“Is Lavy trying to send a message to me? To the team. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t come back.”
 
Laviolette would not say much on the benching.
 
“We got to play a clean game and it seems we do things to shoot ourselves in the foot,” he said.
 
Sending a message to the team?
 
“I’m not talking about any of that with you guys,” Laviolette said.
 
OK, but was the message received?
 
“Zac got up there for a shift and Zac played a real strong game for us in that position, so we ended up leaving him there,” Laviolette said.
 
The Lighting, playing with six rookies and five who made their NHL debut this season, got off to a fast start with six shots against Bryzgalov, who played another strong game. They scored on the seventh, beating the slower Flyer defense in transition, as Dana Tyrell gave rookie Ondrej Palat a semi-breakaway pass into the Flyers' end and he went five-hole to beat Bryzgalov at 6:38.
 
Talbot got the equalizer at 13:55, taking a pass from Andrej Meszaros and backhanding the puck. That was only the Flyers' third even-strength goal in the last 15 periods to that point.
 
After going the first 22 games of the lockout-shortened season with just one goal, Talbot, who scored 19 last year, now has three in his last four games.
 
“Mez gave me the puck coming out of the zone,” Talbot said. “As soon as I came out of the zone, I identified Marty St. Louis was playing as a defenseman.
 
“And anytime you got a forward going backward you might want to try a little extra move, which I did and was able to put it five-hole.”
 
Talbot was all over the ice at both ends.
 
Tampa Bay's rookies hurt the Flyers in the final 2:57 of the period on Johnson’s pass to Pyatt for the lead goal.
 
Despite Hartnell’s absence in the second, Giroux tied it at 15:21. He actually lost the puck to Conacher in the high slot, regained it, and beat Lindback to make it 2-2.
 
The tie was significant in that until last Friday, the Flyers had been 0-5 this season when tied after two periods. They beat the Devils in the shootout.
 
Really, if you can’t win games tied after two periods, do you deserve to be in the playoffs?
 
“We need to win hockey games,” Laviolette said. “Guys worked, but going into the third period, needing to pull out the third and not getting it done is disappointing. It wasn’t for a lack of effort.”
 
Players appeared both dazed and disillusioned after the game.
 
“We gave it all and it’s not going our way,” Bryzgalov said. “It’s sad. What else can you say? Nothing else you can do.”