*Photo from TSN*
It was a battle of Central Division heavyweights, the Carolina Hurricanes and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Hurricanes were the ones who rose to the occasion. Steven Lorentz scored, Jordan Staal added a goal, and the Hurricanes topped the Lightning with a 4-1 win.
Nino Niederreiter started the scoring for the Hurricanes 7:48 into the game with his 16th goal of the season, making it a 1-0 lead. Staal then added his 14th of the season to make it a 2-0 lead. Lorentz then scored to make it 3-0, but a late goal from Brayden Point of the Lightning made it 3-1 after one period. It remained 3-1 until just 3 seconds left in the game, when Jordan Martinook scored on an empty net to make it 4-1.
Lorentz said of the big win that "I think there was a little more at stake here tonight. I think our group did a really good job of bouncing back today, and I'm really proud of the way we responded. Once we got on the board, we kind of got energized, and we put a couple more by a really good goaltender in Vasilevskiy. So we're very proud of the way we responded tonight, and we're very happy taking 3 of 4 from Tampa."
Alex Nedeljkovic got the start in net for the Hurricanes, and put together a dominant performance, continuing the tear he has been on this season. Nedeljkovic stopped 26 out of 27 shots that came his way to get the win. Nedeljkovic saw his record increase to 11-4-2 this season, while the Hurricanes possess a 30-10-5 record, tops in the Central Division.
Nedeljkovic said of the win that ""All these games now, they mean a lot. We're poised here to make a deep run, and games like this are only going to push us in the right direction. We'll most likely have to go through these guys one way or another come playoff time, so any time you can kind of beat em a little bit and at least I think we evened up the series with them for the year."
On the other side, Andrei Vasilevskiy started for the Lightning, taking the loss this time around. Vasilevskiy stopped 32 of 35 shots across the game, still putting up good numbers despite the loss. He saw his record drop to 27-8-1 this season, while the Lightning are 30-14-2 this season, 3rd in the Central.
Lightning forward Blake Coleman said of the loss that "We didn't do quite as good of a job skating. Obviously, there's a hole in the offense right now, and guys like myself and other guys need to start stepping up and carrying the load."
The Lightning welcome the Columbus Blue Jackets to town Thursday night, with Vasilevskiy starting for the Lightning. The Hurricanes face the Florida Panthers on Thursday, with Petr Mrazek expected to start.
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