TAMPA, Fla. (CP) -- Tampa Bay defenceman Dan Boyle thought he was having the night from hell after committing a key turnover on Calgary's third goal in Tuesday night's 4-1 loss in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final.
But the Ottawa native was quickly reminded of hockey's rather unimportant place in real life when the buzzer sounded.
``They told me after the game: `Your house is on fire,''' Boyle said Wednesday. ``I thought it was some kind of a joke, but it's reality. Sometimes being a player in the playoffs you think you're superhuman, but this makes you realize you're not.''
Boyle's house sustained $300,000 US damage after an electrical fire broke out while he was playing across town at the St. Pete Times Forum. Boyle said one third of the house burned down.
``My neighbours said the fire started around 10:30,'' Boyle said at the Lightning's suburban practice facility.
``I went to the house and stayed until 3:30 a.m., trying to take care of things. But I didn't even know where to start.''
No one was at Boyle's two-story south Tampa home when the fire started in the wall of the games room. The fire quickly spread up an outside wall and into the attic.
``It's a tough situation,'' Boyle said. ``I lost a lot of my belongings. The clothes are all gone. They told me six months from now everything will be back to normal. It's just going to be a long summer, unfortunately, but it'll be a lot better if we can win this thing.''
Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final goes Thursday night (CBC, 8 p.m. EDT). Head coach John Tortorella said he wasn't concerned the incident would hurt Boyle's focus.
``That was just a bunch of wood burning,'' Tortorella said. ``There's no one hurt. There's nothing serious that happened. His insurance will take care of it. And whatever the insurance doesn't take care of, I'm sure he has enough money to spend and take care of it himself.''
Boyle said he was lucky in one sense.
``My folks were down for two months up until the playoffs so I can be thankful they weren't there, or I wasn't there sleeping at night, or it could have been a lot worse,'' Boyle said.
Among the items damaged in his house was his most cherished souvenir.
``The puck from my first NHL goal,'' said the former Florida Panther. ``The puck is actually fine but the casing is damaged.''
Boyle, 27, was still shocked that something like that would happen to him.
``The house is 15 years old and had never had a problem but, for whatever reason, it decided to fire up last night,'' Boyle said.
