Lightning Go Down Without Much Fight

As the 82-game hockey odyssey counts down to the end, the Lightning continue to limp toward the finish line.

Playing without its top two goaltenders, with four regular defensemen on the shelf - including the latest to the injured list, Lukas Krajicek - and the sun having already set on any hope of the playoffs, Tampa Bay put up little fight in a 4-1 loss to Carolina on Friday.

Since moving to within eight points of a playoff spot on Jan. 27, the Lightning have two wins in the past 11 games and a 2-7-2 record. On Friday, Tampa Bay had one shot on goal in the first period and finished with a season-low 13 shots, two short of setting a team record for futility.

"When it rains, it pours," alternate captain Marty St. Louis said.

It will make a tough stretch to the end of the season on April 11 as the Lightning will fall into position for the draft lottery for the second consecutive season.

"To me, you have to put this in your memory bank and remember how bad it feels to lose," Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet said. "To get outshot like that and get pounded, you just have to remember that."

After letting in a soft goal to start the game, Mike McKenna held strong, stopping 37 of the 41 shots Tampa Bay allowed, marking the third consecutive game in which the Lightning have allowed 40 or more shots. It was McKenna's first start since being pulled in the first period against Washington last Saturday.

"To me, the positive to take out of the game is McKenna. I mean after letting in that first goal he really battled and I have to really give him credit. I like to see that," Tocchet said.

Despite the shot disparity, Tampa Bay was in the game on Vinny Prospal's goal 1:53 into the second period that tied it. But former Hurricane Josef Melichar lost a puck off his stick in front of his net that went right to former Lightning forward Jussi Jokinen, who scored his first goal since Nov. 13 two weeks after Tampa Bay traded him to Carolina.

The Lightning's fate was determined, however, in the early stages of the third period when Tampa Bay was whistled for three consecutive minor penalties 67 seconds apart - David Koci for roughing at 2:04, Matt Smaby for cross-checking at 2:21 and Jeff Halpern for slashing at 3:11. The successive calls gave the Hurricanes a two-man advantage for more than two minutes.

"The third penalty, my penalty, is probably a call, but that's something that probably goes on 30 different times during a game and they don't call it," Halpern said.

Carolina capitalized on a pair of goals from defenseman Joe Corvo, who fired a shot from the top of the right circle at 3:38 and then another shot from the left circle at 4:17 to quickly turn a one-goal game into a rout.

"I can't imagine being any more down than this," Halpern said. "I think that any team, with the writing on the wall that you are not going to be in the playoffs, it's a miserable feeling. We have some injuries, but the guys who are playing are doing a good job. But losing stinks, being out of the playoffs stinks. Coming out and giving up leads in third periods, giving up four or five goals, it's miserable."