Recording a season-low 22 shots on goal, the Tampa Bay Lightning dropped a second-straight contest Saturday night, falling to 4-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes at AMALIE Arena.
Carolina jumped on Tampa Bay early with Teuvo Teravainen opening the scoring 3:10 into the first period on the power play. With Luke Glendening in the penalty box for roughing, Teravainen took a pass from Sebastian Aho and hammered a one-timer past Jonas Johansson for his ninth goal of the season just 19 seconds into the man advantage.
After going to the locker room in a 1-0 hole, the Bolts saw the deficit double 4:32 into the middle frame with Aho jumping on a loose rebound in front of the net and netting his fourth goal of the year to make it a 2-0 game.
Aho’s goal was the lone tally of the second period, a frame that saw the Lightning record just three shots on goal, tied for Tampa Bay’s lowest total in a single period this season.
Going into the third period down by two against a structured team like the Hurricanes was a tall task for the Bolts, who were outscored 2-0 by Carolina in the final frame with Brent Burns scoring at the 11:20 mark to make it 3-0 before Stefan Noesen sealed the game with a deflection goal with 2:06 remaining.
The Lightning were outshot 32-22 in the loss, a game that Tampa Bay had to play without the services of leading scorer Nikita Kucherov, who missed the game with an illness. Erik Cernak left the game with nine minutes remaining in the second period and did not return. Johansson made 28 saves in the defeat.
Bolts by the Numbers
- The Lightning were shutout for the first time this season.
- Tampa Bay fell to 1-2-0 against Metropolitan Division opponents and 3-4-3 against the Eastern Conference.
- The Bolts recorded just 12 shots through two periods, their lowest amount through 40 minutes of a game this season.
Bolts Quotes
- Jon Cooper: “He's a really good player in the league. I think if you took the top player off any team in the league right before the game, it'd be somewhat of an issue. It's a little tough when you have a power play that's been together so long and you take one piece off. It was very similar when Stammer was out...But the bigger problem is there's guys we depend on on this team to deliver and it's a lot of weight on their shoulders. When we lose guys to injury or what have you, we need that group to pull this team and push this team forward. For a lot of the year, that's happened. Tonight, it was a little more difficult for us. Give Carolina credit. They came in a pretty determined group tonight and they took it to us.”
- Jon Cooper on the status of Erik Cernak: “He's gotta be evaluated. It's tough of late here to be losing these guys.”
- Steven Stamkos: “It’s tough to create anything offensively when you don’t have the puck there. They’re an aggressive team in terms of the forecheck and hemming teams in their own end, so that was probably the case.”
- Jon Cooper: “Last two times we played these guys, we've shut these guys out. There's a little give and take. You're not going to win every one. For us though, to come home for just two home games and then go back on the road and with how much we're on the road, we've got to get these points. That's disappointing to come out of these two games without points. Now we've got to go back on the road. You are going to get beat some nights. Not completely thrilled how we got beat tonight, but it just adds a little more pressure for us to go on the road. We have to come together and not accept what happened these last two games.”
Lightning Look Ahead
- Tuesday, November 14 at St. Louis Blues, Enterprise Center, 8 p.m. ET
- Thursday, November 16 at Chicago Blackhawks, United Center, 8 p.m. ET
- Saturday, November 18 vs. Edmonton Oilers, AMALIE Arena, 4 p.m. ET
