TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- The Tampa Bay Lightning finally caught a break.

"We played the last five games against five of the best teams in the NHL," said Lightning head coach Steve Ludzik. "That was one of them again. Carolina is a really good team. They can really skate with a lot of talent."

But it was the Lightning who came away with the victory.

Chris Gratton and Stan Drulia each had a goal and assist as Tampa Bay snapped a 10-game winless streak against Carolina 3-2 Friday night.

Dan Cloutier made 28 saves for the Lightning, which had not beaten the Hurricanes since the Oct. 1, 1997, season-opener at the Ice Palace.

"They have a strong team over there," said Carolina forward Gary Roberts. "I thought he (Cloutier) did a great job. He's a great goaltender. They play hard, game in, game out."

Vincent Lecavalier scored his club-leading ninth goal of the season as the Lightning took advantage of a road-weary Carolina club that wrapped up a four-game trip that began in Denver Dec. 3, then went to St. Louis and Dallas before Friday's matchup in Tampa.

"We have a difficult schedule and we always have, and we have to deal with it," said Hurricanes head coach Paul Maurice, whose club went 1-3 on their recent trip. "I don't think we were very sharp tonight. We didn't have the legs in a lot of places, but you have to play some games, win some games like that."

Lecavalier scored just 4:48 into the first when he picked off an errant Paul Coffey pass all alone in the low slot, froze Carolina Goal tender Arturs Irbe and wristed a spinning shot high.

That was just one mistake in a handful of fat ones that we laid out there early in that game," Maurice said of Coffey's error.

Carolina appeared to take a 2-1 lead just 47 seconds into the second period, but Gary Roberts' goal was disallowed when he was called for goaltender interference. The game remained tied until 14:19, when Gratton slid a blind backhand pass across the crease to a wide-open Drulia for the easy goal.

The assist was Gratton's club-leading 24th point and seventh goal for Drulia.

Cloutier shone in the third, robbing Ranhein at the 12-minute mark and stoning Bates Battaglia pointblank with just over seven minutes left for his sixth win of the year.

"Our defense played extremely well tonight," said Cloutier, who has started five straight games for Tampa Bay. "We've got a young defense, but I think they're playing with a lot of confidence now. I think it's making it easier on me because we're all getting better and we're all getting more experience."