Lightning win third straight against Hurricanes

TAMPA --Curtis McElhinney made 31 saves for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 3-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Yanni Gourde scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period for the Lightning (13-4-1), who won the final three games of the four-game set.
"Short season and playing against these guys a lot … these points are massive," Gourde said. "So it's great to finish this with two points tonight."
Brett Pesce scored, and James Reimer made 19 saves for the Hurricanes (12-6-1), who won 4-0 on Feb. 20 but were outscored 10-3 in the final three games.
"It's unfortunate we didn't get results," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Over the four games, for the most part, it could've went either way in pretty much every game. Obviously, there are some areas we've got to shore up and get better."

Gourde gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead at 6:22 of the third when he took a stretch pass from Victor Hedman and beat Reimer with a snap shot off the left post from the top of the right circle.
Barclay Goodrow scored into an empty net at 18:44 for the 3-1 final.
"We see these guys a lot, they know us, we know them, and it feels like a playoff game out there," Gourde said. "Obviously, we needed a better game tonight, but we were fortunate enough to come up with the win because McElhinney was amazing in the net."
McElhinney, who was playing his third game this season and allowed six goals on Feb. 15 (a 6-4 loss to the Florida Panthers), came up with several big saves for the Lightning, including a pad save on a one-timer from below the left hash marks by Brady Skjei with 2:49 remaining.
"I don't know if we gave out three stars," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "But he should've been star one, two and three."

Pesce gave Carolina a 1-0 lead at 14:23 of the first period, finishing a 2-on-1 after receiving a pass from Jesper Fast.
"I think the biggest thing is that we've got to play a 60-minute game," Pesce said. "A team like this, they're so good, if you take a breath out there for a shift or two shifts, they are going to capitalize or at least get all the momentum."
The Hurricanes outshot the Lightning 13-6 in the first period.
"We were the better team tonight," Brind'Amour said. "This might've been our best game overall against them. We got a lot of Grade A's and didn't give up much hardly. I was really, really happy. But unfortunately, that's hockey. You get some bad bounces and things don't go your way. "
Mikhail Sergachev scored his first of the season to tie it 1-1 at 12:39 of the second period when he made a strong move to the net and shot the puck under Reimer's blocker from a sharp angle.

Carolina, which entered the game seventh in the NHL on the power play at 28.1 percent, had four opportunities in the second and third periods but did not score.
"Obviously, the power play costs us the game," Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho said. "Scoring goals on the power play is our game."
Brind'Amour said, "Power play … would've been nice to click, but we did have a couple good looks and posts. There were some good things on the power play, but it didn't happen for us tonight."
NOTE:Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak left with a lower-body injury in the second period after blocking a shot. Cooper did not have an update but said it would "be a tough blow if he's out."