Tampa Bay Loses 9th Straight

December 26, 1998 / 10:11 PM EST / AP

Sean Burke stopped 23 shots and Bill Lindsay had two goals as Florida beat Tampa Bay 3-1 Saturday night, handing the Lightning their ninth straight home loss.

Lindsay scored the game-winner in the second period and added an empty-netter with 27.3 seconds left to play.

Burke was especially strong during the second period, when he turned aside 14 of 15 shots. The goalie, who is 3-0 this season against Tampa Bay while allowing just three goals, made point-blank saves on Craig Janney, Cory Cross and Darcy Tucker.

The Lightning, who moved within one game of matching the franchise record for consecutive home losses and two away from matching the NHL mark, got a goal from Alex Selivanov.

The Lightning have lost 17 of their past 20 games overall, getting outscored 80-33.

Tampa Bay goalie Bill Ranford kept the contest from becoming an early blowout in the first period by stopping 15 of 16 shots.

Florida's Scott Mellanby scored the only first-period goal on a deflection of Viktor Kozlov's shot from the blue line at 12:54 with the Panthers on a power play.

Tampa Bay was outshot 11-1 during the first-period's initial 16 minutes and finished with three shots.

The teams traded second-period goals. Lindsay put the Panthers up 2-0 at 6:14. Selivanov, following a backhand pass from Benoit Hogue, made it 2-1 at 16:57.

Selivanov's goal was the Lightning's first in 126 minutes, 45 seconds. Tampa Bay has scored two goals or less in nine consecutive games.

The crowd of 17,983 was the biggest at Tampa's Ice Palace since April 10, 1997 when 20,667 witnessed a game against Pittsburgh.

The Lightning were without leading goal-scorer Wendel Clark (15), who has missed two of the past three games with a groin injury.