Hurricanes cool off Lightning in back-and-forth game, point streak hits 11

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Sebastian Aho broke a tie in the third period, and the Carolina Hurricanes recovered after blowing a three-goal lead to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 at Lenovo Center on Thursday.

With help from a screen in front of the net by Jordan Staal, Aho scored on the power play with a slap shot from inside the blue line to put the Hurricanes ahead 5-4 at 7:17 of the third period.

“We talked about it, to have a little bit more of a guy around the net,” Aho said. “Whether he scores or not, at least he takes one of their D-men to the net too and creates more traffic.”

Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven, and Seth Jarvis each had a goal and an assist, and Brandon Bussi made 24 saves for the Hurricanes (37-15-6), who have won four in a row and extended their point streak to 11 games (9-0-2).

“Everything that went on in that game was kind of what you knew was coming,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We obviously got off to a good start. I thought we battled hard, but the start was the key.”

Brayden Point had a goal and an assist, Jake Guentzel had three assists, and Jonas Johansson made 28 saves for the Lightning (38-15-4), whose six-game winning streak ended.

“We spent a lot of energy trying to come back from 3-0,” Lightning assistant coach Rob Zettler said. “When you give up three goals in the first 10 minutes, it’s never a good recipe. But I will say, the boys battled back. We started to clean it up the second half of the first period.”

Carolina took a 1-0 lead at 1:43 of the first period thanks to Nikolaj Ehlers, who took a stretch pass from K’Andre Miller in the neutral zone before scoring from the right face-off circle on a snap shot that beat Johansson stick side.

Stankoven pushed the lead to 2-0 at 2:56. After he gathered a loose puck near center ice, Stankoven passed to Hall and got the return pass for a redirect at the right post.

“I was hungry to get back out there and contribute,” said Stankoven, who turned 23 on Thursday. “It was nice to see the puck go in and our line to have some success. Sometimes you can’t control where the puck goes, but if you work as hard as you can and keep building on the little things, that’s all you can ask of yourself."

Hall scored on a tap-in at the left post to make it 3-0 at 6:41. Jackson Blake took a pass from Stankoven, then stick-handled around a diving Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh into the slot before connecting with Hall.

“We were able to let our skill take over on the 2-on-1. We kind of practice those,” Hall said. “I feel like ‘Stank’ and ‘Blaker’ and myself, we’ve been a little bit unlucky as a line. So if we can keep creating, I think we’re due for a good stretch.”

Brandon Hagel cut the lead to 3-1 at 16:30 with a snap shot from the left circle off a pass from Scott Sabourin, who was below the goal line.

The Lightning made it 3-2 just 35 seconds later. Nikita Kucherov took a backhand pass from Point in the right circle and held the puck briefly before scoring on a snap shot under the crossbar.

The goal extended Kucherov's point streak to 12 games (eight goals, 20 assists).

“Kucherov with the nice delay, he rips it in the net,” Brind’Amour said. “Like we said coming into the game, that’s the player. You know when he’s on the ice.”

Dominic James tied it 3-3 at 1:58 of the second period. Guentzel’s touch pass from along the boards set up James, who skated past Miller and scored on a snap shot over Bussi’s right pad.

“It’s just getting to my game and staying at it for me with the consistency aspect to help the team win,” James said. “We came back a couple times and battled back. We didn’t give up, so there’s a positive in that.”

Carolina went back in front 4-3 at 7:21 when Jarvis took a backhand pass along the goal line from Andrei Svechnikov and scored glove side from the left hash marks.

Point scored six seconds into a power play to tie it 4-4 at 14:02. His snap shot from the right hash marks came off another touch pass from Guentzel along the goal line.

NOTES: Guentzel has nine multipoint games in his past 18. … Svechnikov has five points (one goal, four assists) in a four-game point streak. … Bussi has won eight straight starts.