The Tampa Bay Lightning were all over the offensive zone through the opening minutes of Tuesday’s Eastern Conference NHL clash against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Tampa Bay hemmed Carolina in their own end to start, even forcing the home team to take a hooking penalty 2 minutes, 31 seconds in. The ensuing power play saw the Lightning fling numerous pucks to the net.
A few snuck through the blue paint, but none crossed the goal line thanks to key stops from goalie Pyotr Kochetkov.
Carolina then flipped the momentum their way, scoring with two seconds remaining on their penalty for a shorthanded goal. Forward Seth Jarvis’ shot from the left faceoff circle found the top right corner of the Lightning net for the 1-0 lead, and Carolina never looked back in a 4-1 win.
“You wanna create momentum as soon as you get a power play early on. We had a great start, and with a little bit of luck maybe we could have put one in. We had one off the faceoff hit the post and had a lot of good looks on the power play and it sucks we weren’t able to capitalize,” Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. “At the end of the day it’s a 60-minute game…You just gotta keep that going for a full 60-minute game as good as you can. They’re a good team, and when you give them chances to come at you, they’re gonna take that.”
Tampa Bay outchanced and outshot Carolina through 20 minutes of hockey, but the latter half of the second period tilted more toward the home team—the Hurricanes outshot the Lightning 15 to six in period two and expanded their lead in the process.
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was called upon to stop a breakaway chance for Jarvis as well as a 2-on-1 one-timer by Jordan Staal in period two, but eventually Lightning turnovers and Carolina opportunities became too much to overcome.
Moments after Vasilevskiy stretched to deny Staal’s one-timer chance with 7:18 left in the second period, Carolina forward Jordan Martinook forced a turnover in the neutral zone.
Martinook charged his way down the right boards in the offensive zone, and his backhand shot from the bottom of the right circle snuck inside the right goal post for a 2-0 lead with 7:04 left in the middle frame.
“For the first 30 minutes I really liked our game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “You could probably make a good argument that we deserved to be ahead, not behind. The problem was we didn't stick with it. We had like a two and a half minute span where we turned the puck over, they end up getting the second and took a little life out of us, and after that we were chasing it.”
Carolina scored in the final minute of the middle frame to make it 3-0 after Taylor Hall dug the puck from a Lightning defender’s skates to create a 2-on-1 before dishing to Jack Roslovic, whose shot from inside the right circle found the back of the net.
Gage Goncalves got the Lightning going in period three with his third NHL goal. The Lightning forward took advantage of a netfront drive and screen by Anthony Cirelli, using the blockage to rip his snap shot from the high slot into the top right corner of the Carolina net 4:38 into the third.
“We just gotta stay simple and get pucks in and just work,” forward Nick Paul said. “We know teams aren’t gonna give us a lot of space, so we've just got to stay working.”
Carolina scored 1:48 after the Goncalves goal to restore its three-goal advantage and make it 4-1 on a point shot by defenseman Sean Walker.
Vasilevskiy finished with 27 saves for the Lightning, while Kochetkov made 23 saves for Carolina.
The Lightning are now 37-23-4. They will look to stop their losing skid at two games when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers for a 7 p.m. game on Thursday.
“That’s what they’re known for is their aggressive style. They got to us there in the second half of the second,” Hedman said. “For us, we’ve just got to regroup and bring the positives, go into Philly and play a more complete game.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Seth Jarvis, CAR (Goal)
- Pyotr Kochetkov, CAR (23 saves)
- Gage Goncalves, TBL (Goal)
