Recap and Ranker: Hurricanes return home, drop 5-1 decision to Lightning

The Carolina Hurricanes’ homecoming after two weeks on the road was spoiled as the Tampa Bay Lightning earned a 5-1 over the Canes on Tuesday night at PNC Arena. The loss drops the Hurricanes to 3-3-1 on the season.

The Hurricanes set the tone early, peppering Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy with shots. Elias Lindholm fired a shot early in the period but the post was in the way. The game remained scoreless despite the Hurricanes being gifted two power plays as Tampa Bay was whistled for holding.

Late in the period, Justin Williams was called for holding on Ryan Callahan. The Canes held on during the penalty kill until Tyler Johnson scored with five seconds left on the power play to put the Lightning up 1-0. Brett sums up the first period perfectly:

Early in the second period, the Canes were given another power play opportunity as Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman was called for slashing. However, once again, the Hurricanes could not capitalize on the opportunity. It would cost them later in the period as Mikhail Sergachev struck to put the Lightning up by two. The Hurricanes failed to get on the board despite outshooting Tampa Bay 11-10 in the second frame.

With around 16 minutes to go in the third period, the Hurricanes finally broke through courtesy of Jaccob Slavin. Josh Jooris earned his first point as a Hurricane with an assist on the Slavin goal. The goal ended Vasilevskiy’s personal shutout streak at 127 minutes.

The ‘Canes would hold the fort until they pulled Scott Darling for the extra attacker with around three minutes remaining. Vladislav Namestnikov potted an empty netter to put the Lightning up 3-1 with 2:30 to go, and Ryan Callahan also scored an empty netter a minute later. With four seconds remaining in the game, Nikita Kucherov would beat Darling to pull him even with Alex Ovechkin atop the goal-scoring table with 10 on the season. With the win, the Lightning improve to 8-1-1 on the season.

Looking ahead, the Hurricanes have a busy week as they head north of the border to Toronto to face off against the Maple Leafs on Thursday. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. on Fox Sports Carolinas.

Rank the Performances

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