Hurricanes rally again, top Lightning in OT

RALEIGH, N.C. --Jaccob Slavin scored at 1:53 of overtime, and the Carolina Hurricanes rallied again for a 4-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at PNC Arena on Sunday.

Slavin scored on a one-timer off a pass from Jordan Staal on a 2-on-1 after Dougie Hamilton tied it 3-3 at 12:48 of the third period with a slap shot from just inside the blue line on the power play.
"We got a pretty clean 2-on-1," Slavin said. "Honestly, I just tried to hit the net. I let it rip as hard as I can."
WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Erik Haula and Brett Pesce also scored, Andrei Svechnikov had two assists, and Petr Mrazek made 10 saves for the Hurricanes, who are 3-0-0 to start the season for the second time in team history (4-0-0 as the Hartford Whalers in 1995-96), rallying in the third period before winning in overtime or a shootout in each.
"When you have to rely on everyone to have a good game, to dig in and come back, it's not ideal," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "But everyone's contributing and they're giving you what they can. It's a good start for us."

Curtis McElhinney made 40 saves against his former team in his debut for the Lightning (1-1-1), who have lost two straight after winning their opener.
"It was the Curtis McElhinney show," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "He was the one guy who really showed up in the last two-thirds of the game. It's too bad we didn't play better in front of him."
McElhinney signed a two-year contract with Tampa Bay on July 1 after playing last season with Carolina, where he set an NHL career high in wins (20) in his one season.
"It was a fun atmosphere in there tonight," McElhinney said. "They're off to a great start and playing really well. They're fun to watch. It's unfortunate to be on the wrong side of it tonight. But it's nice to get my first game out of the way."
Pesce gave Carolina a 1-0 lead 1:14 into the first period when his shot from the point redirected in off the skate of Lightning forward Luke Witkowski.

Tyler Johnson tied it 1-1 at 2:22 on a slap shot from the high slot following a turnover by Hurricanes forward Martin Necas.
Kevin Shattenkirk gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 9:53, scoring five seconds into a power play on a shot from the blue line. Steven Stamkos pushed the lead to 3-1 at 17:44 with a wrist shot from between the circles after intercepting a clearing attempt by Sebastian Aho.
"We just gave up too many easy ones," Brind'Amour said. "It felt like the rest of the game, we took that part out of it."
Carolina outshout Tampa Bay 27-2 over the final two periods and overtime, including 16-0 in the second period, the first time the Hurricanes have held a team without a shot in a period since Feb. 3, 2004, against the Colorado Avalanche.

Haula scored for the third straight game to cut it to 3-2 at 13:49 of the second period, getting a rebound at the top of the crease on the power play.
"Today was a [terrible] game for us," Stamkos said. "Unless we change things, it's going to be a really, really long year. We rely so much on our goaltending and our power play and the passing. It's three games into the season, that's the good news. There's lots of times to correct these things. I don't want to get too down, but it's frustrating knowing the group we have in here and we keep continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results."

They said it

"They played the right way. They played a vertical game, they were skating and moving. I thought we played too slow. Our decision making was slow, we were turning the puck over. It's too bad because [McElhinney] had a heck of a game. It was just awful by us." -- Lightning forward Tyler Johnson
"We don't quit. It's the same mentality we had last year. We didn't play it for 60 minutes (tonight), so we had to come back. But if you can play that way consistently through the whole game, it's pretty hard to beat us." -- Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton

Need to know

Carolina is the 13th team in NHL history to come back to win its first three games of the season. The Los Angeles Kings (1988-89) and Nashville Predators (2005-06) are the only teams to do it in their first four. ... Mrazek's 10 saves were the fewest by a goalie who played the entire game and won since Jaroslav Halak made eight for the New York Islanders against the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 8, 2015.

What's next

Lightning:At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, SNO, SUN, NHL.TV)
Hurricanes:At the Florida Panthers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, FS-CR, NHL.TV)