Schedule loss drops Lightning behind the standings eight ball.

CAR-3
TB-2

Curtis McElhinney allowed 3 goals on 24 shots for the loss.

First Period
4:49 CAR Aho (13), (Svechnikov, Hamilton)(PP)
7:30 CAR Martinook (1), (Bishop, Slavin)
19:53 CAR Slavin (3), (Aho, Hamilton)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
3:26 TB Point (10), (Kucherov, Hedman)(PP)
8:50 TB Johnson (5), (Cirelli, Sergachev)

Tyler Johnson was the game's third star.

This was a difficult ask for the Lightning to play a back-to-back where the latter half was against arguably the best possession team in the league. Carolina, true to form, jumped all over the Lightning early and often. 3-0 after twenty minutes and it seemed like a laugher quickly. They expended a lot of energy on a decent comeback, but again, a three goal deficit in the Third Period remains a virtual death sentence.

So here we are with the Lightning now needing to pull down nine points over the next six games just to stay on nominal playoff pace. The team's not playing poorly, but with the results not matching their form they're in serious danger of digging themselves a hole if they don't start getting results in the next couple of weeks.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Thursday and Friday NCAA highlights features a pair of broken streaks: Sammy Walker 1A and Ryan Zuhlsdor each with 1A in a pair of losses to #3 Norh Dakota; Walker breaks a 4-game pointless streak; Cole Koepke has 6-game point streak come to an end as #8 UMD falls to #1 Minnesota State; Ty Taylor sits back up in Belfast, Ireland as UNH goes 1-1 and takes 3rd at the 5th Annual Friendship Four tournament.

All the details below...

Lightning robbed blind by crooked refs.

TB-3
WSH-4 (OT)

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 4 goals on 35 shots for the OT loss.

First Period
18:50 TB Point (9), (Kucherov, Hedman)(PP)

Second Period
4:28 TB Sergachev (3), (Kucherov, Shattenkirk)
5:17 WSH Kuznetsov (11), (Oshie, Vrana)(PP)
18:48 TB Killorn (6), (Point, Kucherov)

Third Period
3:45 WSH Vrana (12), (Oshie)
11:36 WSH Ovechkin (17), (Orlov, Boyd)(PP)

Overtime
3:03 WSH Orlov (2), (Kuznetsov, Oshie)

Is case you all needed a reminder, NHL officiating is an absolute joke. A travesty. A bastardization of justice parading around as something legitimate. The Lightning played a REALLY good game tonight, and should've been winning 3-0 after 40 minutes, and instead had to settle for a point. Why? Washington gets a Second Period PP off an "interference" call on Sergachev where he's trying to skate to the far boards to a loose puck and he runs over a Caps forward trying to obstruct him from getting there. In the universe I live in, that's at worst a no call and at best an interference call on the Caps. And, to compound matters, you get a ticky tack call on Kucherov for "holding" that leads to the tying goal on Ovechkin. Let's recap Kucherov's "holding": the Caps defenseman isn't impeded from the puck and their body wasn't torqued in any way. Sin bin. And that's fine, if you're gonna call it both ways. But, in Overtime, watch the damned tape and count the infractions that Washington gets away with. Two bigger than ::expletive deleted:: actual holds and an uncalled holding the stick penalty.

It's a farce. An absolute clown show. People in the league office should be resigning for the amount of times this crap happens. Horrible. Pathetic. Trash league.

I'm furious. In case you all couldn't tell.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Valiant effort against defending champs squandered.

STL-4
TB-3

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 4 goals on 33 shots for the loss. The difference in this game was goaltending. Flat out. The second Blues goal was a softie and the subsequent two Blues goals were both shots Andrei got a piece of but allowed to go through him. You hate to finger point, but this one's on Vasilevskiy.

First Period
NO SCORING

Second Period
3:53 TB Kucherov (9), (Point)
5:31 STL Sundqvist (7), (Barbashev, Bouwmeester)(SH)
8:40 STL Sundqvist (8), (Barbashev, Bozak)
11:39 TB Cirelli (6), (McDonagh, Kucherov)

Third Period
8:21 STL Sanford (3), (Barbashev, Bozak)
11:07 STL Schenn (13), (O'Reilly, Schwartz)(PP)
14:23 TB Point (8), (Kucherov, Shattenkirk)(PP)

Anthony Cirelli was the game's second star.

This was a tough one to take. Even without the injured Steven Stamkos and the suspended Erik Cernak the Lightning played well enough to get at least a point tonight, but the goaltending betrayed them. Possession stats were good. Physicality against a Western Conference team was ok. But... Vasiy can play better. Vasiy must play better.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.