The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-4, on Thursday night in their first game back following the Olympics.
Despite giving up an early three goal lead, the Canes power play was the difference, with Sebastian Aho netting the game winner with 12 minutes left. Carolina has now won nine of its last 11 games and is tied with the Lightning for the most points in the Eastern Conference at 80.
Nikolaj Ehlers got the Lenovo Center rocking early on with his 15th goal of the season less
than two minutes into the game. K’Andre Miller tallied the assist on the great cross-ice find.
A Lightning turnover in the neutral zone led to a 2-on-1 where Logan Stankoven found the back of the net on a pass from Taylor Hall just a minute later to give the Canes a 2-0 lead less than four minutes in.
The big first period continued when Jackson Blake made a nifty move to feed Hall for a tap-in at the 6:41 mark. Less than seven minutes in, the Canes were firing on offense with a 3-0 advantage.
Tampa Bay cut the deficit to two on a rip from Brandon Hagel from the circle with a little over three minutes left in the first period.
It didn’t take long for the Lightning strike again. This time, Nikita Kucherov showed off his patience before finding the top corner of the net past Brandon Bussi. In 35 seconds, Tampa Bay cut Carolina’s three goal lead to a 3-2 one.
After a quick start to the second period, the Lightning tied up the game when Jake Guentzel found Dominic James a little less than two minutes in.
The Canes quickly took the lead back on a great backhand pass from Andrei Svechnikov, who found Seth Jarvis in the slot for the game’s seventh goal.
Carolina faltered towards the end of the period again, allowing a power play goal by Brayden Point with under six minutes to go, tying the game 4-4.
When it looked like the scoring stopped for a moment in the third period, Aho went bardown on the power play to give the Canes a 5-4 lead with a little over 12 minutes left in the game.
For the rest of the third period, the Lightning were kept off the scoreboard to give the Canes the big win over one of the top contenders in the East.
The Canes will host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday at 7 pm, looking to extend their point streak to 12 games.
