Carolina Hurricanes Shutout Lightning in First Game of Preseason

The Carolina Hurricanes were triumphant in their first preseason game of 2019, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-0.

Preseason hockey is very rarely pretty to look at, but after months of being deprived of the greatest sport on Earth, last night’s game was a breath of fresh air for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Despite having issues with the stream, we were able to see most of the 1st period, most of the 2nd period, and the entirety of the 3rd period with no interruptions. Tampa Bay’s announcers were lacking in the enthusiasm department, and seemed to be ‘phoning it in’ at times, but that comes with the territory in the preseason.

To start things off, James Reimer played the entirety of the 1st period, stopping all eight shots Tampa Bay threw on goal. Reimer, despite having a small, manageable workload, performed competently, and seemed to be much more dialed in than his previous performances with the Florida Panthers have shown. Reimer never really seemed to be out of position, and very seldom had to battle through a screen to track the puck.

Anton Forsberg finished up the game, playing the entirety of the 2nd and 3rd periods, and secured the shutout for the Carolina Hurricanes. On the whole, goaltending was solid, with Forsberg having (in my opinion) the save of the night; Cory Conacher received a lead pass from Anthony Cirelli, deked around Kyle Wood, and shot the puck to Forsberg’s blocker side. Forsberg calmly batted the puck away, seemingly unbothered by the 1-on-0 chance in his own end.

Scott Wedgewood, on the other hand (and side of the ice), was not so lucky. The Carolina Hurricanes scored their first goal minutes into the game. Max McCormick is credited with the goal, after netting a rebound off of the Tampa Bay netminder from a Brian Gibbons shot.

The next goal came from a Lucas Wallmark snapshot from in close, who finished up a beautiful tic-tac-toe play that saw Jordan Martinook feed the puck to Brock McGinn, who then put the puck right on Wallmark’s stick for the finish.

The final goal of the night was netted by training camp invitee Colin Markison, who deftly batted in a rebound from Morgan Geekie that bounced right off of Wedgewood and right onto Markison’s tape.

Other Carolina Hurricanes standouts include:

Haydn Fleury, who looked to be in great form defensively.

Jake Bean, who quarterbacked the powerplay, and was extremely solid in both ends of the ice.

Lucas Wallmark, who won nearly every faceoff he took, and was involved in quite a few scoring chances.

Ryan Suzuki, who showed great promise along with a huge upside in the ‘two-way forward’ department.

Jesper Sellgren, who plays a much more physical game that is way bigger than he actually is (5’11”, 170lbs., for those who are curious).

Outside of the scoring department, the Carolina Hurricanes’ first preseason matchup saw quite the number of penalties committed by both teams, but was a bit lopsided in frequency on one side of the ice. The Carolina Hurricanes took three penalties in total, two of which are credited to Roland McKeown, the other is credited to Brett Pesce. The Lightning were unable to convert on any of their man advantage opportunities, and in turn took 6 penalties over the course of the night.

The final penalty was taken near the end of the game, with less than 2 minutes in the 3rd period, which resulted in the Hurricanes only having 5 powerplay opportunities credited to their stats (one of which they scored on). 1-5 isn’t the best powerplay percentage, and it honestly echoed last year’s powerplay performances, but I’m sure Rod Brind’amour has a plan to get that worked out by the time the regular season rolls around.

It is the preseason, after all.

Question for CC Readers: Which players impressed you the most in the Canes’ first preseason tilt?