It sure was an entertaining first period for the Tampa Bay Lightning. In the first two minutes, Dwayne Roloson was forced to make some unbelievable saves to keep it a scoreless game.
Although Tampa Bay was being embarrassingly outshot 12-5 by Carolina, the Lightning lit up the lamp first with a goal from Teddy Purcell with 4:46 left in the first period. Marc Andre Bergeron and Ryan Malone assisted on Purcell’s goal.
The Lightning were very careless with the puck in their own zone which caused the Hurricanes to generate some more scoring chances as the minutes wound down in the first period. Roloson again stepped up with some huge saves. If anyone questioned if he was back or not, they got their answer.
Roloson did have a tripping minor that led to the Chad LaRose tieing the game up at one at 18:21 of the first period.
Carolina is outshooting Tampa Bay 19-7 after one period. The Lightning need to tie up those loose ends on defense because this game could easily get out of hand.