TAMPA - Through the first 8 games of the season, Kimmo Timonen has been the solid defensive presence the Flyers hoped for when he was acquired just ahead of the opening of free agency.

But it's safe to say that Timonen wishes he had this one game back.

A late miscue in his own zone led to an errant pass attempt to Danny Briere and a turnover that eventually ended up in the Flyers' net, and solidified a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday night at St. Pete Times Forum.

A strong 3rd period had the Flyers on the cusp of tying the game at 3 goals apiece after Mike Knuble scored at 3:46. The Flyers were able to create a big momentum shift after the goal, but Timonen's errant pass was a punch in the gut that the Flyers could not recover from.

Michel Ouellet was the beneficiary of the defensive mistake as he took got his stick in the way of the pass attempt, and then threw the puck toward the net for a fortunate carom off the skate of Flyers goaltender Antero Niittymaki. The goal came at 13:26, and Brad Richards added an empty netter for one of his two goals of the night with just 1:11 left on the clock.

Niittymaki made his first start of the season and made 22 saves in place of regular starter Martin Biron. Biron had started all 8 of the Flyers' previous games.

Niittymaki took a bit of time to shake off the rust of not starting since April 7th, which was the Flyers 2006-07 regular season finale. But he did gain confidence as the game went on, making solid saves throughout the night.

Johan Holmqvist registered 21 stops of his own to earn the win for Tampa.

The Lightning wasted no time jumping all over the Flyers and got an early 2-0 lead on goals by Jason Ward and Brad Richards. Ward got his 2nd of the season by deflecting a point shot by Filip Kuba right through a screen and past Niittymaki at 6:50. Richards also took advantage of traffic in front of the Flyers net at 9:27 by lasering a slapshot toward the net that found the corner over Niittymaki's glove.

Jeff Carter narrowed the lead less than 2 minutes later by capitalizing on a puckhandling mistake by Holmqvist behind his own net. Holmqvist intended to leave the puck for one of his own defensemen, but instead it was stolen and tucked around the post by Carter before Holmqvist could recover.

Holmqvist had a couple more anxious puckhandling moments around his own net through the night, but the Flyers were not able to make him pay again.

Vinnie Prospal provided the other Tampa goal on the power play when Richards sent a pass in front from the left faceoff dot for the tap-in. It was Prospal's 8th goal of the year in just 8 games.

The win carried on the Lightning's dominance over the Flyers in recent years, and they are now 12-1 against Philly since the start of the 2003-04 season.

The loss gives Philadelphia their first 2 consecutive losses of the season, having won 6 of their previous 7 games to start the schedule. The Flyers are now also 0-2 in their season-long 8 game road trip.

The Flyers played the game without the services of both Simon Gagne and Derian Hatcher. Gagne is experiencing dizziness following a hit he recieved in the first period of Wednesday's 4-3 loss against the Panthers, while Hatcher was a healthy scratch.

The Flyers will now head to Boston to continue their road trip and face the Bruins on Saturday afternoon at a revised start time of 4:00pm.