The Tampa Bay Lightning ended the recent stranglehold they had on the Carolina Hurricanes, losing 4-2 in Raleigh on Tuesday night.
Although the Lightning were grossly outshot by the Hurricanes 12-5 in the first period, they got on the board first thanks to a goal from Teddy Purcell at 15:14. Marc Andre Bergeron and Ryan Malone assisted on the goal. Bergeron now has 13 points, which ties him for highest among NHL defensemen. Carolina answered that goal, with a power play goal from Chad LaRose to tie the game 1-1 at 18:21 of the first period. Even though he gave up that goal, Dwayne Roloson was solid between the pipes in the first period. He was forced to stand on his head because the Lightning were careless in their own zone while holding on to the puck, causing Carolina to have a flurry of legitimate scoring chances.
The Hurricanes lit the lamp 22 seconds into the second period after a goal by Jeff Skinner to put them up 2-1. But, the Lightning gained some more momentum, generating more shots on Cam Ward. Ward came up with some huge saves on the Lightning in the second period, including on the Lightning's 5-on-3 power play. Tampa Bay only had three shots on that man advantage though, all coming from Vincent Lecavalier. Then, on an unfortunate play, Skinner scored again at 10:38 to extend the Hurricanes lead to 3-1 after Eric Brewer's stick broke in the Carolina zone to cause a 2-on-1 for the Hurricanes.
The Lightning really held most of the momentum in the third period, and finally got rewarded for that by getting a goal from Brett Connolly at 14:16 but the Hurricanes took that away from the Lightning immediately when LaRose scored his second goal of the game on the back-end of a 2-on-1 at 15:10.
Even thought the Lightning lost, there were a lot of positives in this game. Lecavalier had an assist, seven shots, and was over 75% in the face-off circle. Roloson played pretty solid. He should have had the last goal (LaRose's second) but other than that, I think he played a pretty solid game.
The Lightning need to improve its play in their own zone though. Tonight, it was careless and haphazard at some points and that needs to be fixed immediately.