Lightning rally to end Hurricanes' winning streak at five

TAMPA-- The Carolina Hurricanes allowed three third-period goals and their five-game winning streak ended with a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Brayden Point scored twice and Ondrej Palat scored for Tampa Bay (34-8-2), which is 17-1-1 in its past 19 games and 12-0-0 against the Metropolitan Division teams.
"We have confidence in our room and if we keep sticking with it something will happen," Point said. "I think our effort was there and we were able to get some chances on the power play in the third."
WATCH: [All Hurricanes vs. Lightning highlights]
Justin Williams scored his 300th NHL goal for Carolina (20-18-5).
"I thought we played a really good game," Williams said. "We didn't give them anything 5-on-5. They scored two power-play goals off penalties. We obviously needed to stay out of the box."

Palat tied it 1-1 on the power play at 11:56 of the third period. Steven Stamkos made a cross-ice pass that went off Hurricanes defenseman Calvin de Haan and off Palat's stick and knee.
"I think it hit my blade a little bit and my leg," Palat said. "It counts. I'm good with it."
Point put the Lightning ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal at 16:45 with a shot from the high slot off a pass from Nikita Kucherov. Point scored an empty-net goal to make it 3-1 at 19:34.

Williams put the Hurricanes up 1-0 at 4:34 of the second period when he chipped in a rebound off a shot from Dougie Hamilton. It was his 11th goal of the season.
"We played a really good game on the road," Hurricanes goalie Petr Mrazek said. "We battled hard and it's too bad we didn't get any points from it."
The Hurricanes outshot the Lightning 12-3 in the first period and held a 24-17 shot advantage with 11 minutes left in the third. Mrazek made 27 saves; Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26.
"We just didn't have our legs," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "It seemed like we were in quicksand. It was both teams probably. They got a little life there at the end of the first. It took us a bit to get going, but when we did it was good."
The Hurricanes were called for six penalties.
"We knew coming in we couldn't take penalties and we did," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "It's too bad. It was a good game. Both teams played pretty hard, I thought, and they got the better of us."

They said it

"It's not easy. When you play a team like Tampa, we're in a good position, and then to lose it that way, that's a tough way to lose. You almost rather lose 8-0." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour
"We found a way again. Carolina is a good team. They were on top of us and they were hard to play against. But we got two points." -- Lightning forward Ondrej Palat

Need to know

Williams has four goals and an assist during a five-game point streak. He has played 1,205 NHL games in 18 seasons with the Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings and Washington Capitals. ... Victor Hedman broke the Lightning record for most games played by a defenseman (663). He was tied with Pavel Kubina. ... Point has 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in the past 11 games. ... Lightning defenseman Dan Girardi had five hits and five blocked shots.

What's next

Hurricanes: Host the Buffalo Sabres on Friday (7:30 p.m.; NHLN, FS-CR, MSG-B, NHL.TV)
Lightning: At the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday (7 p.m.; MSG-B, SUN, NHL.TV)