Flyers score 7 goals but lose to Lightning

Suppose they played a hockey game and no one played defense.

That's what happened Thursday night. Resembling pickup teams on a neighborhood pond, the Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning lit up the scoreboard in a record-setting pace in the first two periods.

Purists hated it. Fans at the Wells Fargo Center roared. That is, when they weren't groaning because of a Tampa Bay goal.

Tampa Bay 8, Flyers 7.

It equaled the most goals ever scored by the Flyers in a loss. They dropped a 9-7 decision to Hartford on Feb. 25, 1984.

Steven Stamkos scored a hat trick, and Martin St. Louis contributed five assists to spark Tampa, which notched the final three goals to erase a 7-5 deficit.

The teams nearly set a Flyers record for combined goals in a game. The record: 17, done three times, most recently on Feb. 23, 1988, when the Flyers walloped Detroit, 11-6.

The Flyers blew leads of 2-0, 5-3, and 7-5.

"We weren't very good in front of our goaltender," coach Peter Laviolette understated. "There were point-blank chances against guys that can score goals. We need to be tighter" defensively.

"We had breakdowns. We should have forced play and we seemed to back off," center Danny Briere said. "Our decision-making wasn't sharp, especially in our own zone."

You knew Thursday wasn't going to be a typical night when the teams combined for nine goals on 24 shots - in the first period.

The Flyers, who were shut out in Montreal on Tuesday, held a 5-4 lead after 20 minutes. That equaled a Flyers record for combined goals in any period.

"It was crazy," said winger Andreas Nodl, who opened the scoring with his fourth goal. "Every time I looked up, somebody scored."

Backup goalie Brian Boucher (remember him?) relieved Sergei Bobrovsky at the start of the second period and allowed a goal on the first shot he faced.

It was that kind of night for the goalies. And the defenses.

"Of course it's very tough when you're pulled out of the game, but this is life, this is the game, and it will happen again," the good-natured Bobrovsky said through a translator after his 12th straight start.

Tampa Bay, 2-0 at the Wells Fargo Center this season, took its first lead when Nate Thompson got behind defenseman Chris Pronger and scored on a rebound with 14 minutes, 41 seconds left, putting the Lightning ahead, 8-7.

Nik Zherdev had two goals and an assist to lead the Flyers. Defenseman Sean O'Donnell was plus-3, making him plus-15 for the season.

Mike Smith stopped Briere's wraparound with 12.9 seconds left to preserve the win.

Bobrovsky and Tampa Bay's Dan Ellis had gotten off to strong starts this season, so no one could have expected what unfolded in the first period: nine goals.

Ellis gave up four of them and was replaced by Smith with 4:26 left in the opening period.

Nine players accounted for the nine first-period goals.

"There are games like that where everything is going to find the back of the net," said Briere, who scored his 10th goal late in the first period.

It was the first time two NHL teams had combined for nine goals in a period since Montreal outscored Quebec, 6-3, in the second period of a game on Dec. 17, 1992.

Five more goals came in the second period. After Andrej Meszaros scored his first goal as a Flyer, the hosts had a 7-5 lead.

But Tampa Bay rallied and knotted the score at 7. Just 14 seconds after Meszaros' goal, former Flyer Steve Downie made it 7-6.

Stamkos scored his league-leading 19th goal on a power play to send the teams into the second intermission tied at one touchdown apiece - 7-7.

The Flyers built a 5-4 lead Thursday in a wild first period that equaled a franchise record for combined goals in any period.

Here were the other times it occurred:

March 21, 1973: The Flyers outscored the New York Islanders, 8-1, in the second period.

Jan. 11, 1974: The Flyers outscored Atlanta, 5-4, in the second period.

Jan. 15, 1980: The Flyers outscored Washington, 6-3, in the second period.

Feb. 25, 1984: Hartford outscored the Flyers, 5-4, in the first period.

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