Game 4 played out in almost three distinct acts, and the Canes unfortunately might have let one slip away, especially when putting four pucks by Andrei Vasilevskiy, all at 5-on-5 play.
The Lightning came out in the first period looking like a team that didn't lose consecutive games in the 2020 playoffs and has yet to do so again this year, and they took advantage of their early jump by netting the first goal of the game. It was the first time this series that a team scored in the first period and the eighth time in 10 games that the Canes have been scored on first.
But it was still just a 1-0 game with plenty of hockey left to play, so the Canes regrouped and came out a much better team in the second.
"We wanted to come out harder than we did in the first," Jesper Fast said. "We had the momentum, and suddenly it went pretty quickly."
Maybe the most frustrating part of the game was how quickly the Canes saw their momentum slip away from them. The Bolts' ever-dangerous power play only grew stronger the more it hopped over the boards.
"We weren't sharp, and then we got going," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We had some good momentum, and the penalties killed us."
Up 4-2, the Canes then surrendered three goals, two of which were scored on the power play, in the span of five minutes late in the second period.
"We knew coming in you couldn't take penalties against these guys, and we were taking them. I think there was some frustration on the guys' part and mine. They were penalties, but there were definitely some the other way getting let go," Brind'Amour said. "You can't take the penalties, no matter if you're getting calls or not."
The third act was the Lightning shutting the Canes down in the third period, stymieing any good chance they had of mounting a comeback and pushing them to the brink of elimination.
"Hockey is a back-and-forth game, especially when you're playing that caliber of team. You're going to have those ebbs and flows in the game," Jaccob Slavin said. "You score four in a period, and you're feeling good. Then the momentum kind of swings. You can't let that happen."
The simple difference was once again special teams: The Lightning scored on their last three power plays of the game and finished 3-for-6 on the evening.
"We took some bad penalties tonight. If you give that caliber of power play that many chances, it's not a recipe for success," Slavin said. "We've just got to stay more disciplined. Play hard, but play smart, as well."
"You can't give them too many cracks at it, right? They don't need a lot of opportunities. … They've got guys who can finish. That's what they do. That's the story," Brind'Amour said. "We can't take those penalties, and we did."
