Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves and Brayden Point provided two goals and an assist as the Tampa Bay Lightning snapped a four-game losing streak with a much-needed 4-0 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Steven Stamkos added a goal and two assists for the Lightning (43-26-6, 92 points). Alex Killorn’s empty-net goal came with 4:21 remaining.
Vasilevskiy’s third shutout of the season came in a thorough performance as the Lightning kept the Hurricanes in check. He made 14 of his saves in the third period.
Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov notched his 75th and 76th assists of the season.
The Hurricanes (47-17-9, 103 points) were shutout victims for the third time this month, ending a four-game homestand with a frustrating result. Pyotr Kochetkov made 17 saves.
The Hurricanes lost for the third time in four games. Carolina maintained its three-point lead on the idle New Jersey Devils for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division.
Stamkos was waiting to the side of the crease, took Mikhail Sergachev’s pass and slid the puck under Kochetkov’s pads for his 31st goal of the season at 5:58 of the second period to open the scoring.
Point’s first goal of the game came after he chased down a rebound. Despite being beyond the goal line, he flicked the puck off the back of Kochetkov’s leg.
Point pushed his season total to 47 goals by scoring again at 12:17 of the third period.
Tampa Bay finished a four-game road stretch by avenging a 6-0 loss from earlier in the month in the same building.
Former Carolina defenseman Ian Cole was out of Tampa Bay’s lineup as a healthy scratch, missing a game for the first time since October. Another ex-Hurricane, defenseman Haydn Fleury, entered the Lightning lineup for the first time in 10 games.
–Field Level Media
