Carolina Hurricanes lose third game in a row to Tampa Bay Lightning
The Carolina Hurricanes were a dejected team Thursday, and understandably so.
The Canes played hard and well in most areas for 60 minutes against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They had their offensive chances, killed off all their penalties, played a physical game and maintained intensity as the game again had a playoff feel to it.
It wasn’t enough. Not against the Lightning, which combined the cool, efficient play of goalie Curtis McElhinney and just enough offense for a 3-1 victory at Amalie Arena.
For the fourth consecutive game, the Canes and Lightning lined up against each other after an NHL scheduling change last week. For the third straight time, the Lightning (13-4-1) won as Mikhail Sergachev, Yanni Gourde and Barclay Goodrow provided the goals and McElhinney made 31 saves against his former team in being named the game’s first star.
“It’s deflating, no question,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said on the postgame interview call. “We were the better team tonight. I thought it might have been our best game overall against them. We had a lot of Grade-As (chances) and didn’t give up much hardly. Unfortunately, that’s hockey.”
The Canes’ Sebastian Aho said the game was lost on the power play as Carolina went 0-5. But so did the Lightning. Neither team had an edge on special teams as the penalty killers for each team were well-prepared. The Canes had some shorthanded chances.
“We probably could have had five or six more power plays, to be honest,” Brind’Amour said. “It was weird how that worked out. But you’ve got to move on.”
Defenseman Brett Pesce beat McElhinney off the rush in the first period for his second goal of the season, with Jesper Fast setting up the shot and Aho also assisting. But that was all McElhinney allowed as the Canes fell to 12-6-1.
McElhinney’s best save might have been in the second period, when he stretched across the crease with his right leg to make a toe save on a Steven Lorentz shot. In the first period, Andrei Svechnikov nearly scored on a backhander that hit the far post, and the Canes had other near-misses.
Canes goalie James Reimer wasn’t as good this night. After Tampa Bay won a second-period faceoff in the Canes zone, Sergachev grabbed the puck, skated in and beat him with a quick, short-side shot — for Reimer, a soft goal. Gourde went top-shelf from the right circle at 6:22 of the third for a 2-1 lead.
That was the difference as Goodrow scored an empty-net goal for the second game in a row after Reimer was pulled.
“I felt the effort was there all night,” Aho said. “We battled hard. There’s a reason they’re the defending champions. The games are hard, but that’s way it should be. It was tough games and two good teams competing. out there.”
The Canes had 38 scoring chances to the Lightning’s 23 and a 15-3 advantage in “high-danger” scoring chances in the game, according to the Natural Stat Trick hockey analytics website. Those were the numbers, but a regulation loss is a regulation loss.
And as Brind’Amour quickly noted after the game, “It doesn’t get any easier.”
The Canes, with 25 points, have dropped to fourth in the Central Division. Leading the division with 28 points are the Florida Panthers (13-4-2), who will host the Canes in the next two games on Saturday and Monday.
“It’s the NHL and there’s no easy nights,” Brind’Amour said. “We got a taste of it this week and, obviously, it’s a tough week for us.
“Guys are down right now because they played really hard and deserved a better outcome. I asked a lot of them and I thought they rose to the occasion. Overall I can’t be unhappy with the way we played.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 6:47 PM.
