There was a possible Eastern Conference Final preview on display in Tampa on Saturday night, as the Carolina Hurricanes emerged with a hard-fought victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The two top teams in the East by points percentage entering the game squared off, and at the start of the contest, it followed a familiar script to the prior two meetings between the teams this season.
Carolina was the aggressor early, and they struck on the first shift of the game when Andrei Svechnikov drew a penalty
on Victor Hedman on a partial break. On the delayed-penalty sequence, Sean Walker found Sebastian Aho below the crease, who sent the puck back to Svechnikov who was open in front. The talented Russian winger beat Andrei Vasilevskiy for his 24th goal of the season.
The top line struck again before the first period was over, when Aho potted his 24th of the year on a nice feed from Svechnikov that resulted from a rebound on an Aho breakaway attempt that Vasilevskiy turned aside.
Carolina grabbed 3-0 leads in both earlier meetings with Tampa, but they could not do that this time, as the Bolts struck twice in quick succession in the second period to tie the game.
The first came from Yanni Gourde, who had a partial break cut off by Alexander Nikishin, but his shot from down the wing beat Frederik Andersen despite a suboptimal angle.
Charle-Edouard D’Astous found an equalizer when the Carolina defense overcommitted in the neutral zone, allowing an odd-man rush the other way. Brayden Point sent a nice pass to the rookie defenseman, who buried his fourth of the season.
The third period was a display of high-level hockey on both sides, but Carolina broke the tie when Jordan Martinook wired a shot that surprised Vasilevskiy from a difficult angle. The bid seemed to deflect off Hedman in front of the net to make it 3-2.
The Canes then put together a dominant run of play from about five to two minutes left, pinning the Lightning in their own end and bleeding precious time.
When Tampa did get a good look, Andersen made a pivotal save in front, and the rebound bounced to the point, where Darren Raddysh misplayed it, allowing Logan Stankoven to wire home an empty-netter to put the game out of reach.
Andersen finished with 17 saves on 19 shots against, as the Hurricanes outshot the Bolts by a 35-19 margin. Carolina takes an exciting season series with Tampa Bay with two wins to one.
