Lightning at Hurricanes
The Tampa Bay Lightning got the important result needed to change their course and attempt to build on it less than 24 hours later, when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday. The Lightning snapped a season-high four-game losing streak with a solid effort at both ends of the ice Saturday in a 2-1 shootout victory over Washington.
“Everyone paid the price,” Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman told reporters. “We played desperate. We played together. That was one of our most complete games of the year.” Meanwhile, the Hurricanes have followed a five-game winning streak with a 1-4-1 stretch after Saturday’s 4-2 road loss to the New York Rangers – scoring fewer than three goals for the sixth time in seven contests. “You’ve got to get hungry to score,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters told reporters. “You can’t be content to just play well.” Victor Rask netted one of the tallies for Carolina, bringing him within one of 100 points in his career, while leading scorer Jeff Skinner was blanked.
TV: 5 p.m. ET, FSN Sun (Tampa Bay), FSN Carolina
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (14-11-1): Center Brian Boyle scored the decisive goal in the shootout and simply told reporters: “Big win. Two points. Stop the bleeding.” The Lightning surrendered 19 goals during their losing streak but got 34 saves from Ben Bishop while Nikita Kucherov recorded his team-leading 13th goal and 29th point with a power-play tally in the second period. Top-four defenseman Jason Garrison missed the game due to a lower-body injury while fellow blue-liners Slater Koekkoek and Luke Witkowski re-entered the lineup.
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (9-10-5): Skinner matched rookie Sebastian Aho for the team lead with four shots against the Rangers but could not add to his team-leading total of 20 points while registering a minus-2 rating. Cam Ward, who was rested Saturday, likely will be back in net to try and snap a four-game winless streak (0-3-1) during which he has allowed a total of only eight goals. Defenseman Justin Faulk scored eight power-play goals through 20 games last season but has been held to one after 21 contests in 2016-17.
OVERTIME
1. The Lightning have won eight of the last nine meetings, including both matchups in Carolina last season.
2. Carolina C Elias Lindholm (lower body) missed Saturday’s game but could return for the clash with the Lightning.
3. Hedman has notched a point in six of his last seven games while Tampa Bay LW Jonathan Drouin has recorded three assists in his last two contests.