Lightning Vs. Hurricanes: Carolina Eliminated, New York In As Canes Fall, 6-2

With their playoff destiny in hand and a home crowd behind them, it seemed impossible that the Carolina Hurricanes would show up and give up four goals in the first half of the game before even cracking the scoring column themselves? The Hurricanes lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning - who will go to the playoffs as the fifth seed - 6-2 at the RBC Center in Raleigh. Carolina out-shot Tampa Bay 43-33, and 16-5 in the third. Mike Smith made 41 saves in the victory for the Lightning. Because of this, the New York Rangers have made the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Dominic Moore got the game’s first goal after a Carolina penalty expired, as the Lightning came rushing up, and Steve Downie let a slapper go from the point. Ward made the first stop, but Moore followed up and tucked one off the post and in to make it 1-0 at 6:45. It was Moore’s 18th of the season, capping off what has been his best season offensively by far in a six-year career.

Brett Clark added a goal to the three the Tampa Bay Lightning scored in the first period, and they have come in and are 20 minutes away from spoiling what was anticipated at as a party at the RBC Center in Raleigh. Tampa leads the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 after two periods. The Hurricanes needed a victory to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs after the New York Rangers had won their game earlier today. Now, it appears it will take a miraculous effort to even give the Canes a shot at getting in, though they got some momentum with a power play goal by Cory Stillman. Tampa Bay has outshot Carolina 28-26.

Clark’s goal came at 10:53 of the period. He took a pass from Vinny Lecavalier and just wristed one through a defender’s legs and past Ward, who certainly looked poor on that one, even if you couldn’t pin the other three Tampa Bay goals on him. It was Clark’s ninth of the season.

I’ll be here all night, updating this post after each period, and then both here and in the playoff picture stream after the game to keep you up to date on the remaining playoff battles. Canes Country is the place to be for the nervous Hurricanes and their fans, while the slightly less nervous folks at Raw Charge keep tabs on the Lightning. Join us all for what should be an intense, playoff-like atmosphere.