Jon Cooper’s message on Saturday night obviously didn’t get through to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who were outscored 6-0 by the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon.
Less than 24 hours after benching his big guns against the Sabers to deliver a message, Cooper saw his men limited to 14 shots in the game. Worse still, the Lightning didn’t throw a shot in the middle period.
Tampa Bay therefore cash a fifth loss in a row and hopes to revive Tuesday, facing the Philadelphia Flyers. Tampa Bay hasn’t had a streak like this since March 2014. The Lightning have lost both games against the Hurricanes this season.
“Nobody’s been happy with how it’s been here for a while,” said captain Steven Stamkos. It is certain that we have very high standards, with the successes that we have known.
“There will be adversity, we know that. Might as well face it right away, rather than in a month. ”
Jesperi Kotkaniemi had the best performance of his career with one goal and four assists. Teuvo Teravainen provided three goals, while defender Shane Gostisbehere added a goal and two assists.
The Carolina newcomer now has four points in two games since joining his new team.
“I’m just happy to have a fresh start,” said the 29-year-old American. I hope to contribute to this momentum. ”
In addition to suffering the loss, the Lightning lost the services of veteran defenseman Victor Hedman in the second period. Tackled solidly by Andrei Svechnikov, Hedman remained on the ground after a bad fall, before retreating to the locker room. He tried to return to the game, but after just one appearance, he was finally forced out of the game.
It was Svechnikov who opened the scoring halfway through the first period. He took advantage of a turnover from the Lightning to recover the puck and hit the target with a good wrist shot at the top of the net.
Then at the end of the period, Teravainen took advantage of a power play to score the first of his three goals in the match, on a superb delivery from Kotkaniemi.
The trio returned to the charge midway through the second period. Fueled by Martin Necas and Kotkaniemi, Teravainen completed a superb tic-tac-toe to increase the Hurricanes’ priority to three goals.
Later in the period, Gostisbehere fired a powerful one-timer on the power play to score his second goal in as many games for the Hurricanes.
Midway through the third period, again on the power play, Teravainen ended his dream day by scoring his third goal of the game, on assists from Kotkaniemi and Gostisbehere. This is the second hat trick of his career.
As if that wasn’t enough, Kotkaniemi added late in the game, also on the power play, with his 12th goal of the campaign. The Hurricanes’ power play was intractable, providing four goals on five occasions.
Andrei Vasilevskiy had a tough day at work with five goals against on 38 shots. At the other end of the rink, Frederik Andersen stopped all 14 shots he faced to earn his first shutout of the season.
