Tampa Bay put it together in 60 minutes of winning hockey during its last outing, but the Lightning may have to be even better when the Eastern Conference-leading Carolina Hurricanes visit on Saturday night.
The East’s heavy hitters will meet for the final time this regular season after facing each other shortly after the Olympic break on Feb. 26.
On home ice in Raleigh, Carolina won that matchup 5-4 in regulation, avenging Tampa Bay’s 6-4 home win on Dec. 20 – two high-scoring affairs by skilled clubs who excel at putting the puck in the net.
Sitting in second place in the Atlantic Division, coach Jon Cooper’s Lightning score 3.52 goals per game (fourth-most in NHL) and won 4-1 Thursday night over the Detroit Red Wings.
It was just the home team’s second win in eight contests (2-6-0).
Gage Goncalves and Jake Guentzel netted two goals apiece, and playmaking right wing Nikita Kucherov, who dealt one assist each to the wingers, achieved 1,100 career points in the win.
He became the second Lightning member with 1,100, joining Steven Stamkos, who notched 1,137 points in 16 seasons playing bayside.
Goncalves reached 10 goals to set a new career high for a season, just as he has in assists (13) and points (23).
“He’s always had (a high hockey IQ),” Cooper said of Goncalves. “It was just about how he was going to develop … what he can and can’t do. Pretty turnover-prone when he first came into the league, so he had to learn kind of the hard way.
“Great example of a kid that’s fought through everything to get here and is doing a heck of a job.”
Since Feb. 1, Carolina is 8-3-0 but went 1-1-0 on its two-game homestand, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 before falling 3-1 to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.
The Hurricanes rank sixth in scoring by averaging 3.46 goals.
They lost for the first time in regulation at home since Jan. 3 and had a 12-game home point streak come to an end last time out.
Mark Jankowski scored the lone goal for the losing side on Team Canada silver medal-winning goaltender Jordan Binnington – his second straight game with a tally – and said he and his teammates have to be better in the middle period.
“We had a good start, but our last few games, our second period, we kind of had a lull,” Jankowski said. “We can’t have that. We’ve got to play a full 60 minutes. Every game in the NHL is a battle. Every night we’ve got to bring it for 60 minutes or else that’s going to happen.”
Coach Rod Brind’Amour said the Jankowski-centered fourth line, featuring left wing William Carrier and right wing Eric Robinson, was rather unfortunately the team’s best grouping.
“They were our best line,” said Brind’Amour. “That’s generally not a good thing because they don’t play that much. We’ve got to get more out of our top guys.”
Seth Jarvis has tallied a team-high 28 goals, while Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov have 23 apiece.
Goaltender Brandon Bussi (25-5-1, 2.37 goals-against average, .899 save percentage) made 14 saves vs. St. Louis but lost his second straight start for the first time in his career.
