Lightning's rally comes up short vs. Carolina
Tampa Bay pulled within a goal in the third period but ultimately fell to the Hurricanes 3-2 on Saturday
by Jacob Lynn / TampaBayLightning.com
Trailing by three at the start of the third period, Brayden Point and Tyler Johnson both scored goals to pull within one, but that would be as close as the Lightning would get in a 3-2 loss to the Hurricanes on Saturday night.
Ultimately, it was a rough first period that cost Tampa Bay on Saturday.
Carolina raced out to a 3-0 lead in the opening frame. Sebastian Aho opened the scoring on a power play five minutes into the game. Jordan Martinook doubled the Hurricanes' lead minutes later with his first goal of the season. The third goal was the back-breaker for Tampa Bay, as Jaccob Slavin scored on a deflection with seven seconds remaining in the period.
After dominating the second period but failing to break through James Reimer in goal, the Bolts created life for themselves with a pair of goals in the first nine minutes of the final frame.
Point got a lucky bounce to score a power play goal early in the period, as the puck deflected in off a Carolina defender. Johnson then broke out of an eleven-game scoring drought with his fifth goal of the year midway through the period.
Video: CAR@TBL: Point nets fortuitous goal off a defender
The Lightning created plenty of chances for themselves down the stretch but a pair of late power plays gave Carolina the possession and killed most of the built up momentum. Tampa Bay ended up outshooting the Hurricanes 29-12 over the final 40 minutes.
Reimer proved to be tough to crack for Tampa Bay all night long. Reimer's best save of the night came in the first period when he robbed Yanni Gourde of a wide open net by kicking his left leg in the air to deflect the puck out of play at the last second. He also made a key stop on two-one-chance for the Lightning in the second period and robbed Tyler Johnson of the tying goal from point-blank range in third.
Next up for the Bolts is a trip to Nashville to face the Predators on Tuesday.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
CAR | 4:49 Sebastian Aho (13) - Andrei Svechnikov, Dougie Hamilton - PPG
CAR | 7:30 Jordan Martinook (1) - Clark Bishop, Jaccob Slavin
CAR | 19:53 Jaccob Slavin (3) - Sebastian Aho, Dougie Hamilton
2nd Period
No Scoring
3rd Period
TBL | 3:26 Brayden Point (10) - Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman - PPG
TBL | 8:50 Tyler Johnson (5) - Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev