Lightning rally to win Game 4, push Hurricanes to brink in second round

TAMPA-- Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos each had two goals and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning extended their lead in the Stanley Cup Second Round with a 6-4 win in Game 4 against the Carolina Hurricanes at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

The defending Stanley Cup champions trailed 4-2 in the second period before scoring four straight goals.
"You could see the guys responding well, the bench stayed calm," Kucherov said. "We knew what to do, we just had to make that switch and start playing the right way. Take care of our zone and create some chances down there and that's what we did."
Brayden Point and Tyler Johnson scored for the Lightning, the No. 3 seed in the Discover Central Division. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves.
Jaccob Slavin had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes, the No. 1 seed. Petr Mrazek made 20 saves.
Game 5 in the best-of-7 series is Tuesday at Carolina (6:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS).
"The first period wasn't great, but obviously we fought back and we were in good spots,' Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Obviously the penalties were what turned the game. That's the game in a nutshell. You can't take six penalties and that's what happened."

Point gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 14:24 of the first period, scoring off a backdoor pass from Ondrej Palat.
Teuvo Teravainen tied it 1-1 at 4:30 of the second period with a one-timer from the hash marks off a pass from Jordan Staal.
Jesper Fast gave Carolina a 2-1 lead at 5:09 with a sweeping shot from the crease.
"We wanted to come out harder than we did in the first," Fast said. "We played the right way, got a goal. We're up 4-2, had the momentum, and it went pretty quick there when they scored three straight goals. It's tough, but we have to find a way to bounce back. Unfortunately, we didn't."
Stamkos tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 9:54.
Dougie Hamilton scored from the point at 10:35 to put the Hurricanes ahead 3-2, and Slavin scored at 12:41 to make it 4-2.
"We score four on [Vasilevskiy], we need to win that game," Brind'Amour said. "He's probably not going to let four in again. I just think, again, the other day, we weren't sharp, then we got going. We had some good momentum and the penalties killed us."
Kucherov made it 4-3 with a power-play goal at 14:38. Johnson tied it 4-4 with a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle at 17:10.
Stamkos scored on a one-timer off a pass from Kucherov at 19:37 for the Lightning's third power-play goal of the period to make it 5-4.
"Eight goals scored, probably the craziest playoff period you are going to see the rest of the way," Stamkos said. "Certainly exciting for the fans, but I give our guys credit, we go down two goals on a couple of unfortunate bounces, I didn't think we were really playing our game. We just kind of talked about staying in the moment, we get a couple of power-play goals late and capitalized."
Kucherov extended the lead to 6-4 at 6:01 of the third period with a one-timer off a pass from Palat.
"He was just making plays all over the place," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Kucherov. "I thought he might've been the best player on the ice tonight. When 'Kuch' is doing some of the stuff he did tonight, he's borderline unstoppable. It's great to see him do what he did tonight because we definitely needed him."

With a two-goal lead, the Lightning held the Hurricanes without a shot on goal for a span of 10:59 during the period.
"I really liked the way we played in the third period, we have to kind of use that and harness that and play that way the entire game," Lightning forward Alex Killorn said. "I think when we had the lead we played really structured hockey. It's not like we're sitting back, we're still being aggressive, you just have to be in the right spots with good positioning and good structure. I thought for most of the third period that was really good."
Johnson said, "We have to be a lot better defensively than what we were. But I think it says a lot about our group and our character that we didn't let it faze us. We took a breath and got back in it collectively as a group."
NOTES: The Lightning have won nine consecutive playoff games after a loss and six consecutive Game 4s in a best-of-7 series. ... Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov had two assists. ... Vasilevskiy is 40-25 in 67 postseason games. ... Carolina scored four goals in a postseason period for the seventh time, third since relocating from the Hartford Whalers. ... Point became the seventh Lightning player to score 60 playoff points.