With the Flames unable to find a second goal of their own to pad a lead, they allowed the Lightning to gain momentum on Steven Stamkos’ 32nd of the season in the first minute of the third period.
Defenceman Andrej Meszaros completed the comeback 1:58 into overtime with a fluky goal from a bad angle on an odd-man rush.
“That was a tough one — off the post, off Kipper and in,” said winger Curtis Glencross, whose team deserved better but did get a critical point in the loss.
“It’s kind of a breakdown. We can’t have a three-on-two in overtime.”
They’ve been so rare lately in regulation.
Only 13 shots came Kiprusoff’s way Friday night against the Panthers.
They were just about as hard to come by for most of Saturday’s game on the Gulf Coast.
But the Bolts more than doubled the 10 shots they managed over the first 40 minutes and foced Kiprusoff to make a dazzling couple of saves just to preserve the point for his Flames.
Seconds after Stamkos scored, Kiprusoff stoned Vincent Lecavalier on a breakaway to protect the tie, and denied Steve Downie with about 22 seconds remaining in regulation.
“I thought for two periods we were very under control,” said Flames head coach Brent Sutter, who saw things change following the first Bolts goal.
“It became kind of a back-and-forth game.”
Mark Giordano was the only Flame able to produce a goal — his second in as many nights giving him 10 on his remarkable season.
He had the puck at the blueline and launched a simple long shot that found a hole on Antero Niittymaki to give the Flames their third powerplay goal in two nights.
But Kiprusoff and the defence need more support. Goals are obviously still hard to come by for a team that added seven new faces in a week.
“Our (defence has) been playing well. In the NHL, there’s not many games you win with one goal,” said Glencross.
“We’ve got to do a better job getting more goals.”
It didn’t help that the Flames lost Rene Bourque after he was hit from behind by Kurtis Foster after less than a minute on the ice in the opening period.
Then Ales Kotalik was given a game misconduct because he fought without having his jersey strapped to his pants.
“We had some chances, too, to get that second one,” said Giordano. “A one-goal game, anything can happen like that. We were trying to push forward and get the next one.
“When you get to the later stages of the game when it’s tied like that, you have to preserve the point, you have to get the point and go from there.
“We just came up a little bit short.”
steve.macfarlane@sunmedia.ca
