A few key plays in the third period might have changed the game’s outcome had they gone the Lightning’s way. With the game tied at two, Carolina defenseman Sean Walker made a desperation skate save on an open-net chance for Brandon Hagel. Late in the third with the Lightning trailing by a goal, Oliver Bjorkstrand backhanded a rebound off the crossbar. And just before Carolina’s empty-netter sealed the win, Frederik Andersen made a point-blank save on Nikita Kucherov.
But Carolina was deserving of the two points. For the majority of the game, the Hurricanes set the terms of play. The ‘Canes like to aggressively pursue pucks and dominate possession. They did both throughout the night. They out-attempted the Lightning in every period and finished with a shot attempt advantage of 67-38.
So the Lightning were forced to play most of the game without the puck. Compounding matters, they had their third straight subpar start against Carolina this year. In the previous two meetings, they allowed three first-period goals. In this contest, they yielded two, one of which came on the opening shift. The Lightning weren’t happy that the refs allowed play to continue after Victor Hedman was called for a penalty during a rush chance for Carolina. Hedman swept the puck up the boards, which should have resulted in a whistle. Instead, Sebastian Aho set up Andrei Svechnikov for an open shot in the slot that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy at :38.
Aho made it 2-0 at 17:28. First, he got loose on a breakaway. Vasilevskiy stopped Aho’s shot, but nobody on the Lightning picked up Svechnikov, who was trailing the play. Svechnikov passed to Aho at the side of the net for the second Carolina goal.
The best line for the Lightning in the game was the Yanni Gourde, Pontus Holmberg, Zemgus Girgensons unit, and Gourde was the one to pull the Lightning to within a goal. Following a Vasilevskiy save at one end, Hedman passed to Gourde on a counter, and Gourde finished his shot past Andersen’s stick at 14:10 of the second. Just over a minute later, the Lightning tied things. On an odd-man rush, Brayden Point passed to Charle-Edouard D’Astous, who lifted the puck past Andersen at 15:31.
Entering the third period tied, the Lightning had a chance to gain points out of the game. Instead, they allowed the key go-ahead goal to Jordan Martinook at 9:18. His shot from the sideboards had eyes, hitting off the far side post and banking in. Logan Stankoven’s empty-netter finished the scoring.
Unfortunately, the Lightning lost Girgensons late in the second period after blocking a shot and played the rest of the game with only 11 forwards. The injury took Girgensons out of a game in which he and his linemates were driving play consistently.
The Lightning were hoping to build on Thursday’s win over Detroit, but they dropped their seventh game in regulation over the past nine. They begin a four-game road trip on Tuesday in Seattle.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game (as selected by Bobby “The Chief” Taylor):
- Andrei Svechnikov — Hurricanes. Goal and assist.
- Nikolaj Ehlers — Hurricanes. Assist.
- K’Andre Miller — Hurricanes. Assist.
