Hurricanes never trail in marquee showdown with Lightning

Jordan Martinook scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period, and the Eastern Conference-leading Carolina Hurricanes won 4-2 over the host Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.

A minute after Carolina defenseman Sean Walker made an amazing kick save on Brandon Hagel’s shot headed for an open net with goaltender Frederik Andersen (17 saves) angled away from the cage, Martinook whipped in a sharp-angled shot at 9:18 for a 3-2 lead.

With Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy finally pulled for an extra skater inside of two minutes after a dominant offensive-zone shift by the Hurricanes, Andersen stuffed Nikita Kucherov’s game-tying attempt while charging through the low slot.

Logan Stankoven’s empty-net goal with 91 seconds remaining gave Carolina a 9-3-0 record in the past 12 games.

Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist apiece. Rod Brind’Amour coached his 600th NHL game behind the Carolina bench and won for the 367th time.

Tampa Bay’s Yanni Gourde and Charle-Edouard D’Astous tallied, while Vasilevskiy made 31 saves as the Lightning fell to 2-7-0 over nine games.

After Svechnikov was fouled by Victor Hedman driving across the goal in the first minute, he looped around on the delayed penalty, took a feed from Aho and broke a tie in goals with the Finnish center with his 24th.

The top-line duo was at it again on the match’s second tally after K’Andre Miller sprung Aho on a breakaway, which Vasilevskiy turned away. Trailing the play, Svechnikov found the rebound and fed Aho at the far post for an easy marker at 17:28 to create another tie in goals with his linemate.

In the second period, Vasilevskiy’s stop on Svechnikov’s shot from the slot was swept out by Hedman to Gourde. The gritty forward then beat Andersen from the right circle at 14:10 to halve the lead.

Just 81 seconds later, Brayden Point led a rush and saucered a pass over to D’Astous, who won a race with Miller and chipped in the tying tally.

In the first two minutes of the third, defense excelled as Vasilevskiy made a sprawling save on Taylor Hall’s shot from point-blank range.

Then Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin foiled Jake Guentzel’s pass that would have been an easy tap-in for Point at the post and put the home side up by a goal.

Carolina outshot Tampa Bay, 11-2, over the final 20 minutes.

–Field Level Media