Recap: Lightning 2, Hurricanes 1

The Carolina Hurricanes keep finding new ways to lose and did so again against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night as the game winning goal bounced past Cam Ward off the boot of Ron Hainsey with just 31 seconds left, giving the Bolts a 2-1 win at Amalie Arena.

It was just another of several goals this season which have ended up in the net after being "helped" by a Carolina skater.

Hainsey was trying to break up a pass but appeared to kick the puck into his own net as he reacted.  Nikita Kucherov was credited with the goal, his second of the game and his 11th of the season.

Ward and Evgeni Nabokov had an old fashioned goalie's duel going while both teams had battled through two plus periods of scoreless hockey.  Kucherov broke that up on another fluke goal about six minutes into the third.

During a Tampa Bay powerplay, Anton Stralman rifled the puck along the side boards on an attempt to dump and chase it as his team entered the Carolina zone.  Ward went behind his net, anticipating to play it, but the puck hit a station holding the glass and bounced oddly, directly in front of the net.  Kucherov was right there to poke the puck into the wide open goal to make it 1-0, home team.

To the Hurricanes credit, they fought back to tie the score as a Justin Faulk shot from the point found it's way past Nabokov to make it, 1-1.  Elias Lindholm was in front of the net, something the Canes have been emphasizing of late.

Faulk continues to lead the team in scoring, now with 17 points.

It looked as though the contest would go into overtime but it was not meant to be as Carolina dropped their fourth game in a row.   The Canes have now scored a measly eight goals in their last six games.

Next up will be the Flyers in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon.

Game Notes:

• Cam Ward made 25 saves on 27 shots for the loss.  Nabby made 29 saves on 30 Carolina shots.
• The Canes went 0-4 on the powerplay, although they had many good looks.
• Gerbe, Terry, and Faulk led the team with four shots each.  Eric Staal had one.
• The team was credited with just 11 hits, led by Zach Boychuk with two.  The Bolts had 17.
• Everyone had double digits of ice time, led by Faulk with 23:39
• Event Summary stat sheet.
• Bill Peters audio - post game