Raleigh —- They were crammed into the Thrashers penalty box. Five Thrashers in all —- Tobias Enstrom, Boris Valabik, Jim Slater, Todd White and Brad Larsen watched from the penalty box as the Hurricanes pulled away in the second period of a 7-1 Carolina win.

The packed penalty box wasn't the result of a huge brawl, as you might expect. No, it was filled because the team lost its cool when calls didn't go its way.

The big call, a 10-minute misconduct on Slater, happened after Slater said he took exception to Carolina's Sergei Samsonov punching Colby Armstrong without a penalty.

"I said something to Samsonov," Slater said. "I was just trying to warn him not to do it again, and I got a ten-minute major."

So what did he say?

"I can't say that. Just 'You'd better watch it next time.' Nothing major," Slater said.

Slater didn't agree with the call, but he was headed to the penalty box anyway. Teammates Enstrom (tripping) and Valabik (tripping) were already waiting for him.

Just 23 seconds later, White was called for a hook, and an irate Thrashers bench, led by an angry Don Waddell, got a bench minor. Officially, the penalty was abuse of officials. The abuse continued after the game.

"I don't complain about officiating, but that's why some officials work in the playoffs and some don't," Waddell said. "We had three guys on the ice at the time, and [the referee] kept wanting me to change the line. I don't think he had any idea what the situation was. Again, that's why some referees work the playoffs and some don't."

Already down two goals, Thrashers goalie Johan Hedberg tried to keep his teammates in the game with two nice saves on a pair of Joe Corvo shots during the ensuing power play.

Corvo's third shot on the power play, a one-timer, finally beat Hedberg, and the rout was on.

The Thrashers finished with 21 penalties, crushing their franchise record of 18, set Nov. 22, 2006, against Washington.

Their 72 penalty minutes is a season high for one game. Valabik tackled Corvo in the final minutes of the game after Corvo hit Eric Boulton to put the Thrashers over the top.

Valabik got five for fighting, two for instigating, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct.

But the game was long over by that point.

When the Thrashers had five in the box in the second period, things were still undecided.

Larsen, who served the bench minor, was the fifth one in.

"I'll bite my tongue here and say we probably lost control of ourselves," he said. "I don't know if all the calls were fair, but at that point we have to be in a little better control than that, and we weren't."

Carolina scored a total of five power-play goals on a Thrashers penalty kill that had been playing fairly well.

The five power-play goals allowed is the most this season and two short of a franchise record.

Carolina's power play finished 5-for-11, while the Thrashers' power play was 0-for-9 and is 1-for-26 in its past seven games.

"Sooner or later, they're going to capitalize on it, and they did," Niclas Havelid said. "We played a stupid game. Frustrating. It was a good team playing a bad team. That's what it was."