The first appearances of Logan Stankoven and Mark Jankowski went better than expected when they debuted on Sunday night against the Winnipeg Jets. Jankowski scored twice and Stankoven added one on the power play to lead the Canes to a 4-2 victory. With the pomp and circumstance behind them, the Canes turned their focus to the Tampa Bay Lightning for the third game of the homestand.
Pyotr Kochetkov tried to extend the team's winning streak to five as he made the start. Kochetkov was the star of the night in the 3-2 win over Boston on Thursday, all but stealing the game. Andrei Svechnikov would miss the game after getting banged up at the end of Sunday's game, replaced by Tyson Jost, and Dmitry Orlov missed his third straight. Andrei Vasilevskiy was in the net for the Bolts.
Giving one of the most dangerous power plays in the league an early chance is never how you plan to start a game. However, when it culminates in a Seth Jarvis goal, you have to just shrug. The Bolts had the Canes' penalty kill on their heels for almost the entire two minutes until Sebastian Aho got just enough of his stick on a pass to allow Jarvis to snipe a shot over Vasilevskiy's glove short-handed.
The Canes had their moments in the first period, but Tampa Bay controlled most of the play. Kochetkov was sharp early, withstanding the pressure from the Bolts for the first 20 minutes. Carolina went without a shot for a long time in the frame as the Lightning tried to even things up. One big glove stop late allowed the Canes to end the period ahead by a goal.
Tampa Bay continued to control the game early in the second, though they continued to be met by staunch opposition from Kochetkov. There was a noticeable shift after the halfway point in the period when Vasilevskiy was forced to make a pair of incredible stops on Jarvis' breakaway and Jordan Staal's 2-on-1 chance.
As sterling as those saves were, Vasilevskiy let in a leaky one, allowing the Canes to double their lead. After the save on Staal, Jordan Martinook reloaded in the neutral zone and stole the puck before carrying it in with speed. He threw a harmless backhander at the net, but it rode up Vasilevskiy's stick and found a small bit of daylight to steal one midway through the frame.
The top line did everything but score when they kept the Bolts' group on the ice for over 2:30, but it was clear that the Canes had seized the momentum. In the final minute, Jack Roslovic was on the receiving end of a beautiful 2-on-1 saucer pass from Taylor Hall to secure his 20th goal of the season and the 100th of his career. With seven dominant minutes, the Canes had opened up a 3-0 lead.
Without Nikita Kucherov to start the third period, the Bolts refused to go away quietly. Gage Goncalves used a beautiful screen from Anthony Cirelli to finally get one past Kochetkov early in the period. There wasn't much the netminder could do with a mass of humanity parked in front of him as Goncalves released his shot.
The good feelings were felt by the Lightning for all of 108 seconds. Jordan Staal won a face-off and Sean Walker showed incredible patience before sliding a low shot past Vasilevskiy to restore the three-goal advantage. It snapped a 42-game goalless drought for Walker. The rest of the way, the Canes struggled to find traction on the power play, but it didn't matter as they secured a 4-1 win.
The final score would tell the story of a one-sided Hurricanes victory. The true story is that this wasn't really the Canes' game until Jordan Martinook's sneaky backhand went into the net midway through the second. Andrei Vasilevskiy had been almost unbeatable to that point. Once Martinook earned that bounce, the rest of the game was all Carolina.
For the first time in his career, Pyotr Kochetkov bested Vasilevskiy, and he did it in impressive fashion. The pressure Tampa Bay sustained through the first half was tough, but Kochetkov was up to the task. He got a little help from the iron on one chance and was magnificent throughout. Along with beating another former Vezina winner, Kochetkov set a new career-high with his 24th victory.
The Canes' top trio wasn't rewarded at 5-on-5, but they were awesome all night. Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis connected on Jarvis' short-handed tally early in the game, but Jackson Blake deserved several points and much praise for his effort. He was all over the ice the entire game, setting up his linemates for chance after chance. The points haven't been there for the rookie, but he's been great.
Up Next: The Carolina Hurricanes conclude their four-game homestand on Friday night against the Detroit Red Wings, who they defeated last week in Detroit. It'll be the first half of a back-to-back before the team flies to Philadelphia ahead of Saturday's meeting with the Flyers. A five-day break will precede the team's swing through California next week and into the weekend.