In a game that did not start the way they would have wanted, the Carolina Hurricanes were able to ratchet things up in the third period and get a late goal to force overtime, but still came up short as they fell 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning at PNC Arena in the team’s third preseason game.
As time wound down in the third period with the Canes on their fifth power play of the game, courtesy a high-sticking double-minor for Tampa forward Brayden Point, the team pulled goaltender Michael Leighton for an extra attacker, and Carolina’s leading goal scorer from last year struck. With 1:05 left in regulation, forward Jeff Skinner got his stick on the rebound of a point shot by forward Victor Rask and roofed a backhander over Tampa netminder Andrei Vasilevsky, who stopped 27 of 28 Hurricanes shots to force overtime.
“Usually when it’s six on four it’s not the prettiest goal,” Skinner said. “It’s usually a rebound, or the puck squirts out. You just try and find those soft areas in the ice and try and bury them when you get the chance.”
The Canes stayed on the power play for the first 55 seconds of overtime, but Tampa was able to kill it off, and shortly after, Lightning forward Ondrej Palat beat Leighton on a breakaway to give the Bolts the win.
Eddie Lack started in net for the Canes and stopped 11 of 12 shots before giving way to Leighton in the third, who stopped four of five. It was a tale of two performances for the Canes tonight, who had 11 total shots on goal in the first two periods followed by 15 in the third alone.
“It was a sloppy first two periods for both teams, really,” Hurricanes assistant coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I thought there just wasn’t a lot going on. The neutral zone was really poor, [we had] a lot of turnovers and we just never really got a good forecheck going. The third period was a little more exciting.”
A slow first period that saw the Canes head to the locker room trailing. The Lightning scored quickly, as Bolts forward Ondrej Palat found forward Tyler Johnson in the right circle on an odd-man rush, and Johnson buried a wrister to make it 1-0 Tampa a little over five minutes in.
“That again was the neutral zone; we made one little mistake and then didn’t read the rush quite correctly,” Brind’Amour said. “When you give their best player the puck in that area; that’s something you don’t want to do, and it ended up in the back of the net.”
The Canes were hemmed in their own zone for long stretches in the opening period and were fortunate to head to intermission down by one. It was a slow period for both sides, as the Canes and Lightning combined for a whopping seven shots on goal in the first.
The second period was similarly slow, with the Lightning outshooting the Canes 9-7. Both teams did have a few good chances, including a power play apiece, but both Lack and Vasilevsky made a few sharp saves to keep it at 1-0. The Canes nearly tied it with less than 30 seconds left in the second, but a Jordan Staal snapshot hit both goal posts and stayed out.
The Canes came out firing to start the third, outshooting Tampa 15-4 in the final frame. Vasilevsky continued to be sharp however, including an incredible pad save on Jeff Skinner right at the start of the period, and another good one on Teuvo Teravainen on the Canes’ third power play. The team continued to test Vasilevsky throughout the period, and he continued to respond until Skinner broke through. Despite going one for six on the powerplay, the Canes definitely had their chances with the man advantage.
“They [the power play] had a lot of great looks,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s so early in the season; they haven’t had one practice. We’re basically trying to tell them on the fly what we want them to do, and they pick it up really quickly. That’s a good positive sign, and we’ll just keep working at it.”
The overtime loss drops the Canes’ preseason record to 2-0-1, and the team will head to Minnesota to take on the Wild on Sunday night.
