Maple Leafs  2    Lightning  3

Toronto Maple Leafs (17-25-9) at Tampa Bay Lightning (19-20-10), 7 p.m.

Sports Network | January 21, 2010

(Sports Network) - A pair of struggling teams will meet tonight in the Sunshine State, as the Toronto Maple Leafs visit the Tampa Bay Lightning at St. Pete Times Forum.

The Maple Leafs have dropped two of three and six of their last eight games, while Tampa has been on the losing end in three of four and five of eight contests. The Lightning are currently 13th out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference with 48 points. Toronto is 14th in the East and five points in back of Tampa.

The Lightning are coming off an embarrassing road loss as they were slammed, 8-2, by the New York Rangers on Tuesday. Marian Gaborik had four assists to lead the Rangers, who had 16 different players register points in the rout at Madison Square Garden.

Antero Niittymaki allowed five goals on 20 shots through nearly two periods for the Lightning, while Dustin Tokarski surrendered three goals on 11 shots the rest of the way. Niittymaki is expected to get the start again tonight, as Tampa's No. 1 goaltender Mike Smith is still out with a neck strain.

Vincent Lecavalier and Alex Tanguay had the goals for Tampa Bay in Tuesday's loss.

"Their leaders outdid our leaders, their grinders outdid our grinders. Their coaches outcoached us," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. "The only thing we did was the bus was on time to get to this game. The bus driver was the best thing we had."

This evening's test marks the start of a four-game homestand for the Lightning, who are 11-6-5 as the host this year.

Toronto was more competitive than the Lightning in its last game, but still left Atlanta without a point after dropping a 4-3 decision to the Thrashers on Tuesday. Ilya Kovalchuk scored twice to lead Atlanta to the close win at Philips Arena.

Alexei Ponikarovsky scored two goals within a 32-second span while Niklas Hagman posted a goal and an assist for the Leafs. Vesa Toskala allowed four goals on 32 shots in the losing effort.

The Leafs' power-play was 0-for-5 on Tuesday and Toronto has just one goal in its last 23 opportunities with the man advantage.

"Our power play just isn't clicking right now," said Toronto head coach Ron Wilson. "We need to work on it, and we can't turn the puck over -- that happened several times and those are the important puck battles."

Toronto is 1-2-0 so far on a five-game road trip that is scheduled to end Saturday against the Florida Panthers. The Leafs are just 8-15-4 as the guest this season.

The Lightning and Leafs have split a pair of meetings this year, with each club winning a game on the road. Tampa has taken five of seven overall in this series, but Toronto has won four of the last seven at the Forum.