Lightning ride third period surge to win over Hurricanes

Four unanswered third period goals led the Lightning to a 6-3 victory over the Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Thursday night.

Quality special teams carried the Lightning through the first period.
A night after Tampa Bay's power play was a perfect 3-for-3 in Washington, Steven Stamkos opened the scoring on the man advantage less than five minutes into the game. Victor Hedman found Stamkos wide open at the circle and instead of one-timing the feed, Stamkos waited for Curtis McElhinney to get out of position and fired home the shot.

After Carolina took the lead on goals from Justin Williams and Dougie Hamilton, the penalty kill was called upon to kill off three minutes of a major penalty given to Yanni Gourde. The PK came up big limiting Carolina's chances and then Tyler Johnson capitalized on the momentum, tying the game with a goal with only 26 seconds to play in the first period.
The Hurricanes took a 3-2 lead into the second intermission on a goal from Jordan Staal. Teuvo Teravainen sprung Staal on a breakaway with a pass from Carolina's defensive zone.
The third period belonged to the Bolts, however. Tampa Bay would go on to score four unanswered goals in the final 20 and held a 15-9 shot advantage throughout the period.
Less than four minutes into the third, Anthony Cirelli tied the game, finishing off a cross-crease feed from Steven Stamkos. Seven minutes later Ryan Callahan scored the eventual game-winner, deflecting home a Ryan McDonagh shot. Brayden Point gave the Lightning some insurance with a power play goal late in the period and McDonagh rounded out the scoring with an empty netter with just over a minute to play.

Stamkos and Hedman led the way for the Bolts offensively with each collecting three points. J.T. Miller, Point and McDonagh also registered multiple points on the night.
Making his first start since March 9, Louis Domingue stopped 25 shots to earn his 21st win of the season.
Also in the victory, Jon Cooper earned his 300th career win behind the Lightning bench.
The Bolts will be off tomorrow before facing the Blues in St. Louis on Saturday night in the finale of this three-game road trip.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
TBL | 3:20 Steven Stamkos (38) - Victor Hedman, Brayden Point - PPG
CAR | 9:51 Justin Williams (23) - Nino Niederreiter, Sebastian Aho
CAR | 11:32 Dougie Hamilton (14) - Andrei Svechnikov, Jordan Staal
TBL | 19:34 Tyler Johnson (27) - Ryan McDonagh, Nikita Kucherov
2nd Period
CAR | 6:34 Jordan Staal (8) - Teuvo Teravainen, Brett Pesce
3rd Period
TBL | 3:35 Anthony Cirelli (17) - Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman
TBL | 10:09 Ryan Callahan (7) - Victor Hedman, J.T. Miller
TBL | 16:36 Brayden Point (39) - Steven Stamkos, J.T. Miller
TBL 18:55 Ryan McDonagh (9) - Unassisted - EN