Hurricanes at Lightning
The Carolina Hurricanes hope to continue creating abundant opportunities in the offensive end and start another winning streak when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night to end a three-game trip. The Hurricanes lead the league in shots per game (42.3) and recorded 43 on Sunday despite suffering a 3-1 setback at Winnipeg, after scoring 21 times while winning four in a row.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Carolina center Jordan Staal told reporters after the loss. “. … We did a lot of great things, worked really hard. Sometimes they don’t go your way. I thought we could have had a better result, but that’s hockey sometimes. We’ll move forward from this one.” The Lightning have earned at least a point in nine straight meetings (7-0-2) with the Hurricanes and broke out of a scoring slump Saturday with an 8-2 rout of Columbus at home. “Overall, I liked the way we put ourselves in a lot of positions to score (Saturday),” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “We were fortunate the pucks had eyes for us.” Forward Brayden Point (three goals) leads the Lightning with four points while goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy owns a .950 save percentage during the first three games of 2018-19 and is 5-0-0 in his career against Carolina.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FS Carolinas, FS Sun (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (4-1-1): Center Sebastian Aho is the sixth player in franchise history to record at least a point in the first six games of a season, totaling 11 with four goals, after assisting on Micheal Ferland’s tally Sunday. Veteran forward Justin Williams (six assists) is second on the team with seven points while forwards Teuvo Teravainen, Ferland and Staal are each averaging one per contest. The Hurricanes are off to a strong start without getting much help from special teams as their power play is 2-for-21 and the penalty-killing until has allowed seven goals in 21 opportunities.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (2-1-0): Tampa Bay’s power-play unit was an ugly 0-for-8 in the first two games of the season before converting four of its seven chances in Saturday’s victory. “I think our power play was much better,” forward Yanni Gourde, who had one of the four goals with the man advantage, said Saturday. “We directed pucks at the net and we created rebounds and that’s how we scored goals. That’s what we have to do more of.” Right wing Nikita Kucherov, who had a career-high 100 points last season, notched a goal and an assist Saturday after being blanked in the first two games.
OVERTIME
1. The Lightning, who finished 28th in the league in penalty-killing percentage in 2017-18, are 14-for-14 in three games.
2. Carolina D Brett Pesce owns two goals and an assist along with a plus-6 rating in the first six contests.
3. Tampa Bay D Mikhail Sergachev rejoined the second power-play unit Saturday and registered a pair of assists.