On the brink

Facing elimination for the first time, Tampa Bay sees its dream season begin to trickle away.

[Photo: Dan McDuffie ] Fredrik Modin is surrounded as he battles for a rebound in front of goalie Martin Brodeur in a scoreless third period for the Lightning. Photo gallery

TAMPA - If there were a sword handy, Dan Boyle might have fallen on it.

Isn't that what you do when there is penance to serve?

"I (messed) up," the Lightning defenseman said. "I probably cost the team the game. I'm not too happy with it."

There was not much for Tampa Bay's players to be happy about Wednesday. The 3-1 loss to the Devils in front of an announced crowd of 21,222 - the second-largest at the St. Pete Times Forum - put New Jersey ahead three games to one in the East semifinals and put the Lightning one loss away from season's end.

Granted, Boyle's giveaway was bad and turned into the winning goal as Patrik Elias gave New Jersey a 2-1 first-period lead. But to pin this game on one person, or play, is way too harsh. As Lightning coach John Tortorella said, "What happened there took 20 seconds. There's still 59 minutes, 40 seconds to play to try to get things figured out."

There was a bright moment when defenseman Jassen Cullimore scored his first career playoff goal 11:30 into the first period to tie the score at 1. But Tampa Bay's determined forecheck that was so prevalent in its 4-3 victory in Game 3, body work and quick feet were not as evident. And that made the glaring mistakes more difficult to overcome.

There was Dave Andreychuk's turnover in the neutral zone that turned into a Scott Gomez goal and 1-0 lead 4:52 into the game. It did not help that Tampa Bay was in the middle of a shift change, which eliminated defensive zone support.

There was a 0-for-3 power play, one of which, with 3:48 left in the second, was cut short by 30 seconds when Tampa Bay was called for (gag) too many men on the ice.

And there was another uneven game from goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, who made 23 saves but allowed two goals on New Jersey's first five shots and let Gomez's shot, the Devils' first of the game, get through his legs.

"He froze me a little bit, and when he shot, I couldn't get down quick enough," Khabibulin said.

Asked if that was a save he should have made, he said, "It's hard to play when they have the lead, but we were able to score right back. So I don't think it made that big of a difference."

A big difference was made by Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, who made 25 saves, including two big ones on Andreychuk during an early third-period power play with the score 2-1.

"That's the difference between winning a playoff game and losing a playoff game," Tortorella said. "We made a couple of mistakes, and it's in the net. They capitalize on our mistakes, and we don't."

And how about Scott Stevens? The Devils defenseman, who missed most of Game 3 after being hit in the head with a Pavel Kubina slap shot, played a team-high 27:35 and scored New Jersey's third goal on the power play with 6:47 left in the game. All of which sets up Game 5 Friday at the Continental Airlines Arena, where the Lightning must win to avoid elimination.

"Tampa Bay is a team that bounces back from games like this," Devils center John Madden said. "They have a lot of character over there. When you're playing a team fighting for their lives, they're very dangerous."

"That elimination game is a tough game to win," Tortorella said. "We go back in there and play hard and find a way to get to Brodeur. You win that game, you're back here and it's three to two and you never know what can happen."

But back to Boyle, who fretted that he couldn't settle a bouncing puck. Under pressure from Elias, he backtracked into the Lightning zone, where he lost the puck to Gomez, who fed back to Elias.

"I want to be one of the guys that makes a difference out there," Boyle said. "You try to create something. And it bounces off your stick, and it's in the net. I screwed up."

"It wasn't Danny's fault," right wing Martin St. Louis said. "There were other mistakes after that."

No sword required.

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