RALEIGH — The Hurricanes had arguably their best first period of the season and then unraveled as the Lightning scored three second period power play goals and cruised to an 8-2 win Friday at PNC Arena.
Nikita Kucherov finished with a career-high six points, and Brayden Point had his third career hat trick while totaling five points to match a career best. Stefan Noesen and Michael Bunting scored for Carolina.
Three observations
1. What’s one way to get beat by the Lightning? A parade to the penalty box.
After a dominant first period by the Hurricanes, Andrei Svechnikov started it off with a bad offensive zone tripping penalty. Steven Stamkos scored at 1:34 of the second period — Tampa’s first shot of the game from in the Carolina zone — and Kotkaniemi was called for tripping just over two minutes later.
Another goal, this one by Kucherov, made it 2-1 Lightning, and then Michael Bunting took a high-sticking double minor on the ensuing faceoff. Tampa scored 6 seconds into the first half of the penalty to make a 1-0 Carolina lead a 3-1 Lightning advantage.
“It was a perfect first period and exactly what we want to do,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “And then we took three really poor penalties, and that’s what they do. They sit and wait for that, and they made us, obviously, pay tonight on them.
2. The tripping penalty on Svechnikov was his seventh straight game with a penalty, and the one Friday swung the entire game.
“Just play simple, I guess,” Svechnikov said when I asked him about his penalty struggles. “I guess not putting my stick in the legs. … They’ve got one of the best if not the best power plays, and I know I gotta be careful. I’m going to try to work on it.”
Svechnikov — who has no goals, six assists and 18 PIMs in 11 games this season — said any frustration he might have from not scoring is not the cause for his penalty woes.
“I’m not I’m not too worried about it at all,” he said. “My time is gonna come. When I’m going to score them, I’m going to score. Obviously it’s been a while. … I’ve just gotta play a little bit harder.”
Brind’Amour tried to shield Svechnikov a bit in the postgame.
“It’s all second effort,” he said. “He’s trying, he’s trying, he just has to be, obviously, better at it. I don’t know what to tell you. He knows it.”
3. Carolina could’ve also used some help from their penalty kill, which allowed four goals in five opportunities.
“Special teams kind of let us down,” captain Jordan Staal said. “The PK’s gotta be better. … We could have done a better job killing tonight and finding ways to get down the ice. Tonight wasn’t it.”
Brind’Amour was quick to give Kucherov full marks for powering the Lightning’s power play.
“It’s one guy, for sure,” he said. “I mean, they’ve got other guys, but it’s clearly — that guy’s as elite as they come.”
Number to know
1 — Shot on goal in the first period for the Lightning, whose only puck on net came from center ice with 6:22 left in the opening frame. Carolina only gave up 14 shots against the Lightning, the fewest this season.
Plus
Michael Bunting, Hurricanes left wing — Yes, Bunting was among the guilty in the three-penalty flurry in the second, but he was also at his agitating and effective best the rest of the game.
Bunting factored in both Carolina goals, scoring on the power play and assisting on Stefan Noesen’s first period tally, and he also put Tampa Bay’s Austin Watson on tilt.
Watson picked up two misconducts and totaled a career-high 26 PIMs — the most by a Hurricanes opponent since Thrashers defenseman Boris Valabik had 29 on March 28, 2008.
Minus
Antti Raanta, Hurricanes goaltender — It’s tough to blame the loss on Raanta, who was first victimized by the Lightning’s power play and then hung out to dry in the third period. Still, a goalie can’t allow eight goals on just 14 shots — the most goals allowed by a goalie with under a .500 save percentage (.429) in NHL history, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
The eight goals allowed is the most since the team’s relocation to North Carolina — Cam Ward twice gave up six — and tied Mike Veisor, who gave up all eight goals in an 8-4 loss to the Flyers on Jan. 9, 1983, for the most allowed in franchise history.
“It’s not like they were his fault,” Brind’Amour said of Raanta, whose 14-game regular season home winning streak came to an end in brutal fashion. “The first four are just wide-open bombs and kind of a weird bounce on one.”
Brind’Amour said in hindsight he perhaps should have pulled Raanta after the fifth goal allowed, but he also wanted to be cognizant of putting Pyotr Kochetkov in a tough position.
“I’ve put Kooch in bad spots a lot,” he said, “always throwing him in there quite a bit and halfway through games, and I really didn’t want to do that either.”
They said it
“We’ve gotta be smarter and keep sticks down and find ways to play our style 5-on-5 without taking penalties.”
— Jordan Staal, Hurricanes center
