The Lightning are lastly on the board towards the Hurricanes.
After shutout defeats to Carolina in every of the primary two conferences of the season, the Bolts bounced again with a gutsy 4-2 victory on Monday evening.
The Lightning dominated within the early going however discovered themselves down by one on Jesper Quick’s aim on the 13:27 mark of the primary interval. Simply as a slashing penalty to Steven Stamkos expired, Quick was left unmarked in entrance of Andrei Vasilevskiy and he put dwelling the rebound of Martin Necas’ shot from the precise level to provide the Hurricanes the lead.
The aim got here utterly towards the run of play on the time, as Carolina had spent a lot of the opening minutes defending waves of stress from Tampa Bay. James Reimer was sharp in aim for the Canes, maintaining the Bolts off the board on a pair of early energy play possibilities.
When the Lightning discovered themselves down a aim to the Canes on Saturday, they obtained caught chasing the sport and their play suffered in consequence. Put into an identical state of affairs on Monday, Tampa Bay continued to play their recreation and had been rewarded with a lead within the second interval.
After seven scoreless durations of play towards the Hurricanes this season, Steven Stamkos lastly obtained Tampa Bay on the board with a blast on an influence play early within the second. This time Stamkos added a twist to his signature left circle one-timer, liberating up area for himself by shifting again to the highest of circle as an alternative of posting up on the faceoff dot. The end result of the shot remained the identical, as he blasted the puck by Reimer on the close to put up.
Victor Hedman adopted that up along with his fourth aim of the season to provide Tampa Bay the lead. Proper off an offensive zone faceoff win, the Carolina protection misplaced observe of Hedman and he gathered Mikhail Sergachev‘s feed earlier than going bar down on Reimer to place the Bolts up 2-1.
Quick responded along with his second aim of the evening on an influence play late within the interval to tie the sport heading into intermission. Quick was once more in a position to beat Tampa Bay to a rebound, this time driving onerous to the far put up and elevating the puck over Vasilevskiy after the goaltender needed to battle off Brett Pesce’s shot from the left wing.
The sport might have simply gotten out of hand for Tampa Bay in that second as on the following center-ice faceoff, Brayden Level performed the puck along with his hand and obtained referred to as for a faceoff violation. The Bolts held agency, nonetheless, killing off the rest of the decision that carried over into the third interval earlier than a hard-working Ondrej Palat aim halfway by gave the Bolts the lead.
A blocked shot fell proper to Palat alongside the aim line and labored his approach across the test of Brady Skjei to the entrance of the online. As soon as into the slot, Palat banked his shot off Skjei’s skate and previous Reimer to place Tampa Bay up 3-2. It might go on to face because the game-winner.
There have been some nervy moments for the Lightning down the stretch with Carolina pushing for the equalizer, however Alex Killorn scored into an empty internet within the closing minute to offer the insurance coverage.
Vasilevskiy was good in internet for the Bolts, stopping 34 photographs within the win. Of these saves, 17 got here within the third interval with the Hurricanes maintaining the Lightning hemmed in their very own zone for lengthy stretches of play.
Ahead Alex Barre-Boulet made his NHL debut for Tampa Bay within the win. With losses in three of their final 4 video games, Jon Cooper shuffled his strains on Monday, with the rookie ahead drawing in and skating on the third line with Alex Killorn and Yanni Gourde.
This four-game set between the Bolts and Canes now shift to Tampa the place the groups will meet on Wednesday and Thursday.
Scoring Abstract
1st Interval
CAR | 13:27 Jesper Quick (1) – Martin Necas, Jake Bean
2nd Interval
TBL | 2:26 Steven Stamkos (9) – Victor Hedman, Ondrej Palat – PPG
TBL | 7:12 Victor Hedman (4) – Mikhail Sergachev, Steven Stamkos
CAR | 19:15 Jesper Quick (2) – Brett Pesce, Dougie Hamilton – PPG
third Interval
TBL | 8:04 Ondrej Palat (7) – Jan Rutta, Brayden Level
TBL | 19:20 Alex Killorn (3) – Erik Cernak – EN
