By Sam Carchidi/The Philadelphia Inquirer

To get a break from hockey, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper spent the night before Thursday’s season opener going to the movies to watch “The Martian.
Thursday, on a more familiar planet, the hockey universe saw the Flyers skate stride for stride with the defending Eastern Conference champion Lightning at sold-out Amalie Arena.
But it wasn’t enough.
Tampa Bay 3, Flyers 2. In overtime.
Defenseman Jason Garrison scored on a breakaway with 2 minutes, 43 seconds left in OT to give Tampa Bay the win. It was his second goal of the game and it ruined the NHL coaching debut of the Flyers’ Dave Hakstol.
On the bright side, the Flyers played well and salvaged a point against one of the NHL’s expected powerhouses. Goalie Steve Mason was brilliant in the OT, but the Lightning attack was relentless.
Scott Laughton was stopped on a penalty shot with 3:33 left in the NHL’s first three-on-three overtime. Ben Bishop turned aside his backhander, marking the second penalty shot he had prevented in the game. According to the Flyers, it was the first time they had two penalty shots in a game in their history.
The Flyers have lost eight straight in Tampa -- and four consecutive season openers. In franchise history, the Flyers are 21-19-8 in openers.
Ryan Callahan scored on a bad-angle rebound, putting a shot to the short side while Tampa Bay was on the power play, knotting the score at 2-2 with 1:38 left in the second period.
The Flyers had gotten goals from Matt Read and Brayden Schenn (power play) to take a 2-1 lead. Scott Laughton, who beat out Vinny Lecavalier for the third-line center spot in the preseason, set up Read for the Flyers’ first goal of the season, tying the score at 1 midway through the second period.
Read, coming off an injury-plagued season when he scored a career-low eight goals, finished off a slick tic-tac-toe passing play with R.J. Umberger (two assists) and Laughton.
About two minutes later, Schenn jammed in a power-play rebound to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead. Evgeny Medvedev, making his NHL debut, fired a shot from the point and it deflected off Umberger. The rebound squirted to Schenn on the left side, and he put it past Bishop to give the Flyers their first lead.
“Umberger is pretty good in front of the net,” said Schenn after the Flyers scored on two of their three second-period shots. “He let the puck hit him and it dropped, and I was there for the rebound.”
The Flyers had the NHL’s third-best power play last season, and they led the league by connecting on 10 of 30 attempts during the recently completed preseason.
But Callahan tied the score and made the Bolts 1 for 3 on the power play. Garrison gave Tampa a 1-0 lead on an innocent-looking play, wristing a shot from the right point past a screened Mason with 18:35 left in the second period. Steven Stamkos created havoc in front of Mason, who never moved.
Forty seconds later, Mason stopped Ondrej Palat on a breakaway to keep the Flyers within a goal.
The Flyers had a 13-10 shots edge in a scoreless first period that featured Claude Giroux’s penalty shot.
Pulled down from behind by Palat with 6:13 remaining in the first, Giroux made a couple of terrific moves and appeared to have Bishop beaten on the penalty shot. But with an open net staring at Giroux, the 6-foot-7 Bishop was able to extend his arm at the last instant and get his stick on the center’s shot, causing it to trickle wide.
It was the first career penalty shot for Giroux, who was 1 for 12 in shootouts last season.
All four Flyers lines had solid shifts in the opening period and played with a good pace, matching Tampa’s speed and getting more scoring chances because the visitors held a 12-4 faceoff advantage, led by Giroux winning five of six draws.