Lightning 3, Hurricanes 2 - OT

The Carolina Hurricanes played nearly the opposite game as they did the previous night against Washington and were dominated on Saturday night in Tampa Bay as the Lightning put 50 shots on goal while skating to a 3-2 overtime win.

Justin Peters kept his team in the thick of things as he made 47 saves, some of them outstanding.

Jiri Tlusty scored both goals for the Canes, one a shorthanded tally that gave the Hurricanes a league leading seven shorthanded goals for the season so far.

The Hurricanes were outshot in each and every period and spent a lot of time in their own zone chasing a quicker Lightning team.   Peters was equal to the task though and was riding a 2-1 lead into the third period.

Jordan Staal was called for tripping 6:49 into the period and the Lightning patiently worked the puck around until Victor Hedman fired a shot toward the net that Martin St. Louis tipped past Peters to tie things up.

The Bolts continued to overpower the Hurricanes and hem them in their own end, but Peters made several stops to keep things tied and the game went to overtime.

A couple of minutes into the extra period, Jeff Skinner was slammed into the boards by Radko Gudas, who then skated the puck into the Carolina zone with a two-on-one advantage.  He wound up and blasted the puck past Peters, who looked to be in pretty good position on the perfect shot.

Jiri Tlusty gave the Canes the lead on one of Carolina's few chances in the first on a perfect shot that rang the post and went in.

Tampa Bay tied the game on a Hedman shot as the big blueliner skated behind the Hurricanes defense to put one by Peters at 16:12 into the opening period.

The game was tied until midway through the second when Eric Staal fed Tlusty a sweet pass at the blueline as the winger was breaking in alone during a penalty kill.  Ron Hainsey started the play with a nice set up pass to Staal.

Peters then put on a clinic making save after save to keep his team in the lead.  One stop was a high glove save that needed to be reviewed because it looked like it might have been under the crossbar, but it counted as a save because there was no conclusive evidence to reverse the on-ice call.

The Hurricanes returned home after the game and will next take on the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night at the PNC.

Game Notes:

• The Canes were outshot 50-27 for the game.  The Canes could take some notes from this game on shooting accuracy. The Bolts only missed the net on eight shots.  The Canes missed the net 12 times on fewer chances. Justin Faulk and Tlusty led the way for Carolina with four shots each.
• Jay Harrison left the game early with an upper body concern.  There was no update on his condition.
• Down a defenseman, Faulk played a team high 29:23 of ice time.  Andrej Sekera played 28:39.
• The Hurricanes were called for five infractions in this game while the Lightning only went to the box twice.  The Canes went 0-2 while the Bolts went 1-5 with their powerplays.
• Listen to post game interviews as always at Canes PR.