Point scores with 52 seconds left in 3rd to lift Lightning past Hurricanes

TAMPA – Brayden Point scored with 52 seconds remaining in the third period to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.

Point took a centering pass in the low slot from Nikita Kucherov along the right-side boards and beat Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov with a snap shot from close range.

“[Guentzel] does a good job of getting the puck to ‘Kuch’ and then he sees me before he gets it and makes a spinning pass,” Point said. “It’s on my tape and I just tried to control it and put it on net.”

Lightning coach Jon Cooper said: “Some guys are gifted, and he just has a gift when he gets in there. He knows where to put it. He doesn’t shoot it the hardest, he just knows where to put it. Especially in situations where it’s instinctive and he’s got to think quickly.”

Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul also scored for Tampa Bay (21-15-2), which had lost four in a row. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves.

“Got to give the guys credit because midway through the third period we give up the lead and now… are you going to question yourself and what’s happened to us before?” Cooper said. “But we stuck with it and then a great play by ‘Pointer’s’ line. When you’ve lost a couple in a row you need something to go your way, and I thought tonight their effort produced a game that went their way.”

Jordan Staal had a goal and an assist for Carolina (24-15-2), which is 3-2-1 in its past six games. Kochetkov made 30 saves.

“Those are the worst ways to lose,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You’d rather not even come back because it’s a kick in the teeth.”

Hagel gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 16:38 of the first period when he stuffed the puck past Kochetkov off an initial shot from Darren Raddysh.

Andrei Svechnikov tied it 1-1 at 6:31 of the second period, scoring on the backhand from the high slot after Staal won a face-off in the offensive zone.

“We played a good game, just I guess unlucky a little bit on the last goal,” Svechnikov said. “Rod even said ‘don’t put your heads down’, we’ve got to keep our heads up and find a winning streak again and go from there.”

Paul put the Lightning ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal at 9:17, scoring on a rebound in front of the net.

“I think the most simple thing you can do in hockey is throw it on the net, and good things will happen,” Raddysh said. “We’ve just got to make sure we do the simple things and play to our strengths.”

Staal tied it 2-2 at 9:56 of the third with a redirection from net-front position off a shot by Brent Burns.

“It’s tough because tonight we played well enough to get something out of that,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s been the story of the season for me. When we go out and play well enough to get something and we’re getting nothing out of those games. You’ve got to find a way to at least get something out of these games and that’s what we haven’t done all year.”

NOTE: Burns played in his 884th consecutive game, tying him with Steve Larmer for sixth-most all-time.