Florida Panthers 2, Tampa Bay Lightning 2 FINAL OT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Despite several challenges by Vincent Lecavalier, Roberto Luongo made sure the Florida Panthers got a point.

Luongo made 40 saves, including two on Lecavalier late in regulation, to help the Panthers tie the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-2 Wednesday.

"It was a great game ... it was exciting until the end," Luongo said. "It's after Christmas now and games are starting to be more and more important."

Luongo stopped a backhander by Lecavalier from the slot with four minutes left in regulation, and then made a glove save on Lecavalier's shot from in close with 3:13 to go.

"It was just kind of a reaction save," Luongo said.

Florida has recorded a point in 14 of its past 18 games, The Panthers have gone to overtime in 10 of those contests.

Lightning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 30 shots, including a pad save on Stephen Weiss' rebound from in close a minute into overtime.

"The goaltending was unbelievable for both teams," Panthers coach Rick Dudley said.

Brad Richards and Cory Stillman had power-play goals for Tampa Bay, which had gone 0-for-23 with the man advantage over the previous five games.

"A lot of positives out there today," Lightning defenseman Cory Sarich said. "You're never satisfied just with a tie, but we got some things accomplished. We worked hard to give ourselves a chance to win, which is a big positive."

The Lightning are 4-11-4 in their last 19 games. Tampa Bay outshot the Panthers 18-7 in the third period.

"For the past little while there's been inconsistency, but I thought we took a step in the right direction," Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella said.

Viktor Kozlov and Mike Van Ryn scored for Florida.

"One (point) is better than nothing," Kozlov said.

Richards put the Lightning up 1-0 with a power-play goal at 12:32 of the first. Kozlov tied it at 1-all with 1:20 left in the period.

Stillman's power-play goal from the blue line made it 2-1 nearly seven minutes into the second. Dave Andreychuk set up the goal by winning a faceoff.

Andreychuk played in his 1,550th game, moving him past Alex Delvecchio into seventh place on the career list.

Van Ryn's power-play goal evened the score again midway through the second. It was his first goal in 17 games.