Carolina Hurricanes fight past Tampa Bay Lightning in Central Division battle
The Carolina Hurricanes would like to play the Tampa Bay Lightning again at PNC Arena this season, and the only way that’s happening is if they meet in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
That would be something to see, especially if it was like Saturday’s intense, hard-fought game.
The Canes and Lightning matched up for their final regular-season game at PNC Arena as the two Central Division leaders went at it for 60 minutes. The Canes emerged with a 4-3 comeback victory before an announced crowd of 4,433, moving to within one point of the Lightning for the division lead.
Martin Necas, quickly becoming an emerging star in the league, was at his flashy best against the 2020 Stanley Cup champions. The winger had two goals and two assists, twice scoring on power plays and giving the Canes (23-7-3) a 4-3 lead at 16:07 of the third with a blast from the right circle.
“He stepped up for us tonight, for sure,” Canes center Sebastian Aho said.
Aho did the same with a goal and assist. Cedric Paquette scored for the second straight game for Carolina and his second this season against his former team. His early second-period breakaway and score on Andrei Vasilevskiy got the Canes started.
The Canes took a 3-2 lead into the third, but the Lightning (24-8-2) scored 22 seconds into the third to tie it on a Mathieu Joseph goal. But Necas’ second power-play goal was the winner as defenseman Dougie Hamilton extended his point streak to 14 games with an assist.
“Coming out for the third with the lead and right away they get a goal, that could have been deflating, but these guys just keep playing,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
Brind’Amour said this week that nothing seems to faze his team. It didn’t Saturday, even after the Lightning bolted to a 2-0 lead early in the first period on goals by Blake Coleman and Pat Maroon.
The Canes’ response? Paquette scored against his former team again, and Aho scored his 15th of the season. Necas had his goal and both assists in the second period as Carolina took a 3-2 lead.
“Shift after shift we played our own game and we competed hard,” Aho said. “It was a good game by us even if the start wasn’t ideal. How we responded was a great team effort.”
Canes goalie James Reimer was beaten on a Coleman redirection and then allowed a soft goal to Maroon when he couldn’t glove a slow-moving puck in the crease.
Reimer steadied after the first two goals. Joseph beat him with a quick, top-shelf shot but Reimer had 19 saves. It also helped that the Canes limited the Lightning’s chances, limiting Tampa Bay to 11 shots in the final two periods — four in the third.
With COVID restrictions eased by Gov. Roy Cooper, the Canes were able to bring in more fans for Saturday’s game.
“Right away when we first came out I felt like, ‘Wow, we’ve got a hockey game here.’ There was a lot of energy,” Brind’Amour said.
Injury update
Center Vincent Trocheck took part in the morning skate Saturday at PNC Arena, at times jumping into line rushes. But Brind’Amour said Trocheck, who has been sidelined with an upper-body injury, would miss an eighth straight game, saying he did not know when Trocheck would return to the lineup.
“That’s a medical question and you’ve got to pass a bunch of tests and hurdles and things,” Brind’Amour said. “Right now it’s encouraging that he’s out there, because whenever he does get the green light he can probably get right into it. That’s the good news. But I can’t tell you when that might be.”
Forward Teuvo Teravainen (concussion) did some skating on his own Saturday. Petr Mrazek took part in the morning skate as the third goalie.
Brind’Amour said with the loss of Teravainen and Trocheck the Canes are missing “two huge parts” of the team.
“That doesn’t get talked about enough, for me,” he added. “That’s a big huge hole that’s there,”
This story was originally published March 27, 2021 at 6:32 PM.
