1
0
Lightning fans feel like the sky is falling.
TB-0
CAR-4
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 3 goals on 27 shots for the loss.
First Period
NO SCORING
Second Period
2:19 FLA Trocheck (9), (Niederreiter, Necas)
15:30 FLA Aho (6), (Svechnikov)
Third Period
3:12 CAR Paquette (2), (Bean, Martinook)
17:41 CAR Svechnikov (7), (Aho, McGinn)(EN)
After losing three of the last four, I know the temptation is going to be for Lightning fans to panic. I’m not going to sit here and say the Lightning played great tonight, but I will say that the Lightning played better than the final score indicated and better than they played for most of the three game set against Florida. Carolina got some puck luck on their first goal and a rare Brayden Point bad turnover that yielded the second one. In terms of expected goals at 5v5, they actually outpaced Carolina for the game, but got no puck luck of their own. Goals change the flow of games, and I suspect getting one would’ve opened the floodgates a bit for the Lightning tonight. As it is, my big takeaway from this one was that the Lightning’s bottom six really put some pressure on the Hurricanes and it’s now important for the Lightning stars to match that.
Alexander Volkov was -1 with 3 shots, 4 hits, and 1 blocked shot in 11:16. He’s starting to feel more confident. Maybe a little too confident because he tried some junior hockey moves in the offensive zone and got his clock cleaned a couple of times, but the puck is starting to follow him a bit and he’s getting chances.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
