The Carolina Hurricanes remained undefeated last night, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime. The game was…. interesting... so here’s the recap (and I apologize that it’s coming so late in the day).
After Brock McGinn rang a shot off the post behind Curtis McElhinney, Andrei Svechnikov scored off a great tip from a Brett Pesce shot. A matter of seconds later, McElhinney needed to make a great save off Teuvo Teravainen on a cross-crease pass.
Tampa Bay responded quickly though, with Martin Necas turning the puck over and Tyler Johnson rifling one home on a slapshot. Necas is still so young, so for now he’s getting a pass but he’s been poor in his own end in the three games this season.
The Hurricanes were pressing right from the get-go though and McElhinney had to come up big on high-chance shots from Warren Foegele, Martin Necas and Erik Haula.
Tampa Bay took the lead later in the period from a Kevin Shattenkirk point shot, then Mathieu Joseph almost increased the lead, hitting the post while coming down the wing on a rush. McElhinney made an amazing stop in the slot, shutting down Brock McGinn and then Steven Stamkos beat Petr Mrazek with about two minutes to go in the period to go up 3-1. That’s pretty much where Tampa Bay’s offense decided they’d done enough for the night.
Erik Haula brought the Hurricanes back to within one, putting a rebound past McElhinney on the power play with about six minutes to go in the third.
McElhinney did make some great saves in the second period to keep it a one-goal game but neither he, nor the goal was the story of the second period. Not only did Carolina not give up a goal in the second, they didn’t give up a shot. That’s right. Arguably the league’s most dynamic forward group in the league was outshot 16-0 in the second period– and it didn’t get much better for them after that.
Dougie Hamilton would tie the game in the third period on a power play (which has now already scored four goals in three games), sending it to overtime, where the Hurricanes did not disappoint.
While Carolina couldn’t convert on a 4-on-3 power play in the extra frame, Jordan Staal stripped Nikita Kucherov of the puck, went in on a 2-on-1 and upon getting the pass, Jaccob Slavin made no mistake.
If you watched the game you knew this would be the narrative in the post-game recap but the Lightning had almost zero offense after the first period. Between the second period, third period and overtime, the Hurricanes outshot the Lightning 27-2. The Hurricanes had more goals in that time than the Lightning did shots. I don’t think many saw that coming.
Carolina’s next game comes tomorrow night when they travel to Florida to face the Panthers.
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OTHER HURRICANES ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
Game Recap (Game 2): CAR @ WSH
Game Recap (Game 1): CAR vs MTL
Hurricanes Updates- Gauthier, Forsberg and captaincy 
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