Game 4: Canes trail Lightning 5-4 after the second period
Canes #Canes
Resiliency has been the hallmark of the Carolina Hurricanes under coach Rod Brind’Amour.
The Tampa Bay Lightning showed some resiliency of their own on Saturday and it leaves the Canes on the brink of being eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.
So many times in the past three years under Brind’Amour, the Canes have taken a punch and been able to punch right back. The Lightning, after falling behind 4-2 in the second period, fought back for a 6-4 win in Game 4.
The Lightning now lead the series 3 games to 1 and need only one more win to eliminate the Canes and move on in pursuit of their second straight Stanley Cup.
In the middle of a wild second period, it looked like the Canes were going to come home for Game 5 on Tuesday at PNC Arena with the series tied at 2-2.
To put a spin on the old saying: a series doesn’t really start until the home team wins.
Tampa Bay, last year’s Cup winners, did just that with a lethal power play that produced three goals in an insane second period.
How crazy was it?
The two teams combined to score six goals in the first two games of their Stanley Cup playoff series in Raleigh. They combined for eight — in the second period alone.
Nikita Kucherov and Steve Stamkos each scored twice for the Lightning. Stamkos’ second goal, with 23 seconds left in the period, turned out to be the game-winner and came after a foolish penalty by Andrei Svechnikov.
The Canes got goals from Teuvo Teravainen, Jesper Fast, Dougie Hamilton and Jaccob Slavin in the second period.
Fast’s goal at 5:09 in the second, put the Canes up 2-1. The wild back-and-forth between the Central Division teams was just starting.
Stamkos answered on his first goal of the series after Canes goalie Petr Mrazek couldn’t control an initial shot on the power play.
The Canes got the next goals with long wrister from Hamilton at 10:35 and a quick follow-up from his defensive partner Slavin at 12:41 for a 4-2 lead.
But the Lightning scored the next three goals, a pair on the power play and a knuckle-puck shot from Tyler Johnson at 17:10, which was one of the only goals Mrazek had a real chance to stop.
The game started oddly enough with with matching penalties for Carolina’s Warren Foegele and Tampa Bay’s Blake Coleman so it was 4-on-4 before the puck dropped. Then the Canes also had to kill off an early penalty on Jordan Staal.
Tampa Bay got a tap-in goal by Brayden Point at 14:24 of the first period after a beautiful pass from Ondrej Palat for a 1-0 lead.
The floodgates opened, on both sides, in the second period but the Canes were unable to take Tampa Bay’s last punch.
Second round
(Tampa Bay leads 3-1)
Game 1: Lightning 2, Canes 1
Game 2: Lightning 2, Canes 1
Game 3: Canes 3, Lightning 2 (OT)
Game 4: Lightning 6, Canes 4
Game 5: at Carolina (Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.)
Game 6: x-at Tampa Bay (Thursday)
Game 7: x-at Carolina (June 12)
Note: x-if necessary