Lightninged!

What the hell is with the nature theme for the Bruins opponents lately? And why is Mother Nature such a bitch against the Boston club lately?

After being buried by the Avalanche 4-2, the Boston Bruins flew cross country to Tampa Bay for another match up against the Mario Lemieux-led team. While Lemieux would not be a factor at the end, the results were once again the same - a loss for the Bruins.

The Lightning struck first (no pun intended) as Steve Sullivan - a Boston name if ever there were one - beat Raycroft at 05:18 off a Mario Lemieux laser pass. The 'Bolts then put the screws to the Bruins, with Ossi Vaananen and Jeff Jillson thugging up with matching highsticking penalties in the next five minutes. Fed up, Bill Guerin hooked Lemieux, sending him sprawling to the ice, for which he earned two minutes of rest.

Vaananen again thugged up, penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct as he retaliated on the Bruins at 13:50, and a mere twenty seconds later, Matt Cullen earned a double minor misconduct for boarding to extend the Bruins' power play. Finally, Keith Tkachuk capitalized, scoring his thirteenth goal of the season when Martin Havlat set him up for the dump goal at 17:56 to tie the game at one.

Thirty seconds later, though, the tie would be broken as Mario Lemieux left Andrew Raycroft dumbfounded as The Magnificent One has been known to do. The game went to the first intermission with the Lightning up, 2-1.

The two sides came out full of piss and vinegar - but not offense. With the home club taking the shooting lead, twelve to nine, the offensive attempts were normal, but the connection with the back of the net was lacking. Neither team scored in the period, and the only real action came courtesy of of several roughing penalties. The arena collectively held its breath when Mario Lemieux tripped over the red line, injuring himself to the point of leaving the game.

It was another round of roughing and highsticking in the third period, as there were five penalties whistled during the period, with the tide going in the Lightning's favor three-to-two. Matt Walker earned his obligatory penalty, a five minute major for highsticking, which set off yet another Ossi Vaananen roughing call in retaliation.

Among the bloodshed, though, Keith Tkachuk somehow managed to score his second goal of the game, and only fourteenth of the year, to knot the game two-up at 12:34 of the period.

The game entered the overtime period with the Bruins down a man after Zdenek Kutlak's unsportsmanlike conduct call at 19:36. The defense fought off the power play effort, but then was caught with their pants down on a line change, as Kyle Calder scored the game winner just past two minutes into the period.

As is becoming the Bruins' road trend, the 16,948 home town fans went home happy, seeing their club win the game and take all three game stars, as Kari Lehtonen moved to 10-8-0 on the year, stopping twenty-seven of twenty-nine shots he faced.

With their second loss in as many games, the club will slouch their way up the coast line to meet the Carolina Hurricanes.