The Carolina Hurricanes three-game winning streak came to an end Sunday night as they fell 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning at PNC Arena.
The Hurricanes (5-7-0) struggled defensively, turned the puck over too many times and took too many penalties, all of which Tampa Bay (6-5-2) eventually capitalized on.
Carolina’s special teams proved to be a difference maker in the first period, killing off two Lightning power plays and scoring on their own man advantage opportunity.
Captain Eric Staal, standing by the goal crease, backhanded a feed from forward Kris Versteeg between the legs of Tampa goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to give the Canes a 1-0 lead.
The Lightning responded less than a minute into the second period when a Carolina turnover led to a backhand goal from forward Ryan Callahan. Canes goalie Cam Ward had no chance to make a save as Tampa forward Ondrej Palat made a quick cross-ice pass to Callahan, leaving Ward without enough time to get from post to post.
“They’re skilled,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. “If you’re going to give them the puck in the areas that we turned it over in and give them odd-man rushes, you’re asking for trouble.”
The Canes struggled all night maintaining possession of the puck, turning it over 15 times, making it tough on the defense and difficult to produce offensively.
“We were too loose for the puck,” Peters said. “We turned it over too many times, and that led to goals against. It led to penalties, which led to momentum for them.”
With a minute left in the second period, Tampa finally converted on its fourth power play of the game to take a 2-1 lead into the locker room. Forward Steven Stamkos, last season’s second leading NHL goal scorer, rocketed a shot past Ward from the point.
Tampa forward J.T. Brown, the son of former NC State and NFL running back Ted Brown, extended the Lightning lead to 3-1 in the third. Brown skated past multiple Canes defenders and fired a backhander over Ward’s left shoulder.
The Lightning beat Ward’s glove for the second straight time later in the third on a goal from forward Tyler Johnson, giving Tampa a comfortable 4-1 lead.
Versteeg pulled Carolina within two goals with less than five minutes to play on a breakaway, beating Vasilevskiy between the legs.
Versteeg, who the Hurricanes acquired in an offseason trade, leads the team in points through the first 12 games of the season.
“I like Kris Versteeg,” Peters said. “He’s as advertised. [Versteeg] is a skilled guy, he can make plays in tight spaces and he’s playing very well right now.”
The Hurricanes pulled Ward with more than two and a half minutes remaining to send on an extra attacker. Jordan Staal scored on a slapshot with 0.1 seconds on the clock to make the final score 4-3.
