The Bruins’ final road game of calendar year 2009 was one to forget.

The B’s showed plenty of late game resolve but not a whole lot of luck as they dropped a 2-1 contest to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday. (Recap.)

Alex Tanguay scored late in the first period and Martin St. Louis delivered a goal late in the second, while Mike Smith made 15 of his 31 saves in the third period to lead Tampa to the victory.

While the Bruins could certainly gripe about many calls or non-calls during the contest, they also had to take stock of their own failure to capitalize on scoring chances and to lock down the Lightning attack. Boston was outshot by the Bolts, 24-6, in the middle period, hardly a winning formula no matter how many questionable calls may have gone against the B’s in the third period. The Bruins also failed to score on the power play (0-3) with the game on the line in the final minute.

Monday’s setback sent the Bruins back to Boston with a 1-1 showing on a brief two-game roadtrip through Florida. The B’s took a 2-1 win over the Panthers in Sunrise, Florida, on Monday.

Things could certainly have fared better for the Bruins Monday, but there was also a sense that the hockey gods where not cosmically tipping the on-ice karma in their favor. Shots rang off goal posts, passes bounced off sticks and the puck just landed the wrong way.

“We were unlucky on a couple of things. I hit the post, but overall I think we didn’t deserve to win,” Sturm told reporters. “We didn’t play hard enough for 60 minutes. We only played for 20 and that’s what happens.”

It’s probably best for the Bruins just to let this one go. The team skates back on home ice against Atlanta on Wednesday, and then it’s time to head outdoors for the Winter Classic.

Here’s three things to look at in the rear view mirror while getting closer to Fenway.

ROAD WARRIORS TO ROAD WEARY

During their surprising run to the top of the Eastern Conference last season, the Bruins compiled a dominating 15-4-3 record in games through December 31, 2008.

Once the ball dropped to usher in 2009, things took a dramatic turn.

Boston fell to a mediocre 9-9-1 on the road from January to April last season, with a 3-2 road mark during the playoffs. After Monday’s setback, the Bruins are 8-6-4 on the road this season. That’s a combined 20-17-5 road record for calendar 2009.

The B’s went from a significant road force for the first three months last season to a slightly better than breakeven road team after January 1 this year.

The Bruins are generally competitive when skating away from Boston and usually leave the ice in distant cities with at least one point, but if the team wants to be a truly elite force in the East, mediocre road play won’t cut it.

ANOTHER SLUGGISH START PROVED COSTLY

Although they are a middle-of-the-pack road team, the Bruins often seem to start slowly when playing away from Boston. That pattern emerged again Monday. 

The Bruins had generated several scoring chances after starting a power play 6:37 into the opening period, but fell behind, 1-0, when Kurtis Foster dumped a bouncing puck into the Boston zone that Tim Thomas (37 saves) was unable to control.  Vinnie Lecavalier gathered the loose puck and sent a slick backhand pass through the crease for Tanguay to fire into the net with 1:01 left in the first.

The teams traded scoring chances early in the second, with Blake Wheeler clipping the goal post. But the Lightning eventually controlled play, building a 24-6 shot advantage in the period and taking a 2-0 lead on the power play when St. Louis tapped in a loose puck after a point shot from Foster slipped under Thomas with just 12 seconds to play in the second.

Sturm got the Bruins on the scoreboard with 7:30 to play, picking up a loose puck, twirling and whisking a shot past Smith.  It turned out to be too little, too late.

“It was an issue of just not being engaged, not playing hard enough, but we got ourselves going in the third period and started playing with more emotion,” coach Claude Julien told reporters. “Our big players stepped it up and gave ourselves a chance. But you hit a couple of posts, and that’s when I knew we weren’t going to get any breaks tonight. In a game like that, you have to make your own.”

STURM IS STARTING TO ROLL

With his third-period tally Monday, Sturm now has three goals in four games, including the game-winner in Sunday’s 2-1 win in Florida. He leads the Bruins with 12 goals and is on a pace for a 26-goal season.

Perhaps just as important, Sturm is playing with a bit of an edge. That was apparent on a fiery attack leading to his goal in the third period, after Sturm had been hauled down without a penalty having been called, one of many non-calls against Tampa.

The Bruins would be well served to play with that kind of emotion for 60 minutes of hockey.

“We didn’t play well for two periods. I think they just outworked us and everyone was not happy after the second [period],” said Sturm. “We came out pretty strong, just the way we wanted to play, in the third period but it was not good enough.”