3 Keys: Hurricanes at Lightning, Game 4 of second round

No. 1 Hurricanes at No. 3 Lightning
4 p.m. ET; USA, SN, TVAS
Tampa Bay leads best-of-7 series, 2-1

The Carolina Hurricanes will try to win two straight road games and even their Stanley Cup Second Round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning when they play Game 4 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida on Saturday.
Carolina, which defeated Tampa Bay 3-2 in overtime in Game 3 on Thursday, trails the best-of-7 series.
The Lightning won Games 1 and 2, each 2-1, at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.
"I thought we deserved better in our first two games and they were probably the better team the last game," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said Friday. "It's one little play here or there makes a difference. That's kind of what happened in three games."
The Lightning were 2-0 following a loss in the first round against the Florida Panthers after they were 7-0 following a loss in the playoffs last season, when they won the Stanley Cup.
"As much as we always stay positive with our approach and what we liked about our game, we've got a veteran group that understands we can take criticism," Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. "As the series goes on, those mistakes or miscues or plays you want back, those can be the difference going forward. We look at those things and feel we can be better. Ultimately if we keep working hard and trusting our structure, it gives us a good chance to win."
Teams that hold a 3-1 lead in a best-of-7 series own an all-time record of 294-30 (.907), including 3-1 mark in 2021.
Here are 3 keys for Game 4:

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1. Carolina's MASH unit up front

The Hurricanes will be challenged with three top-nine forwards battling injuries: Nino Niederreiter (upper body), Vincent Trocheck (lower body) and Warren Foegele (upper body). They combined for 47 goals during the regular season.
Trocheck was injured when he collided with Foegele in Game 2 and didn't play in Game 3. Foegele was hit by Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak in the second period of Game 3 and didn't finish the game. Each will be a game-time decision for Game 4.
Niederreiter will miss his fourth straight game after getting injured during practice before Game 1.
"That's been the year for us, always, to lose a guy and the next one has to come and play good," Carolina forward Teuvo Teravainen said. "It's good that we have guys to step in and play minutes. Whoever's out there, they're going to be really good."

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2. Lightning's lethal power play

Tampa Bay is 3-for-8 (37.5 percent) on the power play in the second round and 11-for-28 in nine playoff games (39.3 percent).
The Lightning scored on each of their first two power plays in Game 3 to tie the game 2-2 in the second period. They could have won Game 3 on the power play late in the third period or in the first minute of overtime if not for goalie Petr Mrazek making five saves on Grade A chances.
The Lightning struggled with breakouts and turnovers on the power play in Games 1 and 2. They got the puck into the zone quicker in Game 3.
"They adjusted," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "They were moving pucks. They know what to expect now and you can see what we can do with it."

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3. Stretch it out

Open ice has been hard to find and is a big reason the series has been low scoring (6-5 for Tampa Bay) with five 5-on-5 goals (3-2 for Tampa Bay). But each team likes to utilize the stretch pass and has scored because of it.
Aho made it 2-0 at 7:40 of the second period of Game 3 after defenseman Jaccob Slavin delivered a long pass up the ice that was deflected in the neutral zone by Teravainen, springing Aho for a breakaway.
Anthony Cirelli gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead at 8:06 of the third period in Game 2 after a stretch pass from defenseman Victor Hedman.
"We've got a lot of speed, both lineups do, and it's a matter of trying to catch teams out of structure," McDonagh said. "You allow teams to set up in the neutral zone, it makes it that much harder. We try to catch teams out of structure, when they're making a change, and they're doing the same thing to us."

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Hurricanes projected lineup

Andrei Svechnikov -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Jordan Staal -- Martin Necas
Morgan Geekie -- Jordan Martinook -- Jesper Fast
Max McCormick -- Steven Lorentz -- Cedric Paquette
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Brady Skjei -- Brett Pesce
Jake Bean -- Jani Hakanpaa
Petr Mrazek
Alex Nedeljkovic
Scratched: Max Lajoie, Jake Gardiner, Drew Shore, Ryan Suzuki, Roland McKeown, James Reimer
Injured: Nino Niederreiter (upper body), Vincent Trocheck (lower body), Warren Foegele (upper body)

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Steven Stamkos
Barclay Goodrow -- Yanni Gourde -- Blake Coleman
Ross Colton -- Tyler Johnson -- Patrick Maroon
Victor Hedman -- Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev -- David Savard
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched:Cal Foote, Mitchell Stephens, Gemel Smith, Christopher Gibson, Spencer Martin, Fredrik Claesson, Ben Thomas, Alex Barre-Boulet, Daniel Walcott, Andreas Borgman, Taylor Raddysh, Boris Katchouk, Mathieu Joseph, Luke Schenn
Injured:None

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Status report

If Trocheck and Foegele can't play, Geekie and McCormick likely will. Geekie played in Game 3 in place of Trocheck. ... Savard was on the ice for an optional practice Friday and Cooper said the defenseman is "getting closer." ... Brind'Amour said he would consider using seven defensemen because of the injuries at forward, although "I'm not a big fan of it, just (because) the seventh [defenseman] doesn't really play. But it's definitely a consideration."