Thoughts From My Couch: Carolina Hurricanes v. Tampa Bay Lightning, Round 2, Game 3

Down 2-0 in the series and on the road for the first of two games, the Hurricanes are in desperate need of a win. They haven't been outplayed much over the first 120 minutes of the series. If you were to tell someone the Canes were outplaying the Lightning through two games, they'd likely ask if the Canes were up 2-0 or even tied 1-1 in the series, but they'd be extremely surprised to see them on the losing end of both games. After losing Nino Niederreiter to start the series, now Vincent Trocheck is down for the time being and Morgan Geekie is in for the first time in the series. No disrespect to Geekie, but being down Nino and Trocheck is a major shot to an offense that is already struggling to score goals against the world's best goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy. Speaking of goaltending, Rod Brind'Amour is looking to shoot some adrenaline into the arms of the team by starting Petr Mrazek tonight. This is not an indictment of how Alex Nedeljkovic is playing because I've thought he's played well this postseason. This is a message to the team to get it together and seeing if Mrazek can provide a spark for the team and re-kindle the amazing start he had to the season. We'll see early if the Canes respond to this message and if it'll be enough to silence the Tampa crowd and cut into their series deficit.

1st Period: Hurricanes 0, Lightning 0

I didn't think there was a single problem with how the Canes started the game. They pushed early, then Tampa Bay got several shots in a row that Mrazek stopped, then the SAT line had a great shift and looked good. That's when the period shifts and does a total 180. Tampa Bay looked dangerous to end the period, but the biggest difference was the kill of the only power play of the game so far. Carolina looked absolutely awful for that two-minute stretch and did absolutely nothing during it. Tampa knocked out everything they could and made it look easy. The aforementioned SAT line was the Canes' best in the period. I forgot to mention their re-uniting earlier, but they had a majority of the team's best chances. That being said, the Canes didn't have as many Grade A chances that the Lightning did. Victor Hedman had at least two, Anthony Cirelli had another, and there were probably a couple more. The offense is down two major pieces, so that top line is going to pick up the slack because my confidence in everyone else has gone down a little with the depth dwindling. I'm hoping for a major turnaround from the end of the period going into the beginning of the second period.

2nd Period: Hurricanes 2, Lightning 2

The Canes made it to two goals, finally. Despite this, they're still tied after the second period. The Canes jumped out to an early lead in the period when Aho and Svechnikov entered the zone and waited. Svechnikov passes it to Brett Pesce and he blasts it past Vasilevskiy in an uncharacteristic goal allowed by his standards, but I don't care because the Canes are up 1-0. Then, over two minutes later, Teuvo Teravainen deflected a pass from Jaccob Slavin through his legs to Aho. He walked in all alone and beat Vasilevskiy five-hole to give the Canes a 2-0 lead. That's where it goes downhill for the good guys. About 20 seconds later, Aho takes a cross-checking penalty that leads to a beautiful passing play, culminating in a goal from Brayden Point. Late in the period, Brady Skjei gets called for holding and Alex Killorn scores about 25 seconds later to tie the game. Honestly, the kill didn't look that bad. The Lightning are just that good with the man-advantage. I thought it was another great start that will be remembered for how it ended. The Canes should be ahead after two, but unforced errors led to two goals. Time to earn it back in the third.

3rd Period: Hurricanes 2, Lightning 2

We're getting more extra hockey since neither team decided to end it in regulation. The Lightning outplayed the Canes to open the period, outshooting them 7-0 to open the period, but the Canes made a serious push towards the end of the period. Jordan Staal had a great chance alone on Vasilevskiy, but it was stopped with the blocker. The Canes are down another man with Warren Foegele getting hurt in the second period and trying to play through it in the third, but he played one shift and knew he was done for the night. That makes it three forwards down for the Canes. Dougie Hamilton was called for a trip late in the period that frankly I don't think should've been called given the battle between he and Killorn, plus it really didn't look like much. The Lightning's staff jumped the gun with about six seconds left. They thought Tampa scored and the smoke on the glass went off as if the puck had gone in when it had not. Tampa will still have 52 seconds on the power play to open the overtime session, so the Canes need to kill it before focusing on winning the game.

Overtime: Hurricanes 3, Lightning 2

In the words of John Forslund, she's a series now!!! The remainder of the kill looked a little dicey with Tampa getting a few chances to bury the game-winner. After coming inches away from losing the game and with a bunch of tired bodies on the ice after an icing, Martin Necas won a battle against Nikita Kucherov to draw a holding the stick penalty against the Lightning superstar. The power play didn't start well, but the team battled on. After being set up by Teuvo Teravainen, Sebastian Aho put a puck on the net and it deflected off Jordan Staal and past Vasilevskiy to put the Canes right back into this series. They did the post-game interview with Aho under the assumption it was his goal, but it was later changed to Staal. That doesn't matter as long as a Canes player scored, I don't care.

Canes' Three Stars of the Game

Third Star- Teuvo Teravainen- 2 A

Putting the SAT line back together seemed to be one of the many changes the team made tonight that worked. They were the team's best line all night. Turbo played so well all night and his passing was on full display. His between-the-legs tip to Aho to set up the second goal of the game and his great feed to Aho on the power play helped set up the winner. Glad to see Turbo play like this tonight and hopefully this is a turning point for him in the series

Second Star- Petr Mrazek- 35/37, 2 GA (1st playoff appearance this season)

You might remember that Mrazek's last start was the last game of the season where the team lost 5-0, albeit with many regulars sitting. He hadn't played yet this series, but he stepped in tonight and took this game over in the third period. He shut the door on Tampa after allowing two power play goals that he didn't have a chance on. Tampa hasn't scored more than two goals in a game this series and Petr kept it going tonight in a move that was purely meant to light a spark in this team.

First Star- Sebastian Aho- 1 G, 2 A

I initially thought the game-winner was his, but there is no way you can't look at his performance tonight and think he wasn't the best player on the ice. He factored on every goal, including a huge goal in the second and the set-up to win the game in overtime. He continues to lead the charge for this team and his performance was needed if the Canes had any chance of staying in this series. He has been the most consistent player on the team all postseason.

Final Thoughts

There was no way you could go down 3-0 in this series and think there was any chance of coming back. That's why Staal's goal in overtime is such a big deal. Instead of being on the brink of elimination, the Canes have guaranteed a return trip to Raleigh for Game 5 and a chance to even the series before then in Game 4. Petr Mrazek's performance tonight is likely to get him the start on Saturday. The biggest questions are going to be on the injury front. I thought Morgan Geekie played well tonight coming in for Vincent Trocheck, but now Warren Foegele could potentially be out for the next little bit. My thought is that Max McCormick is going to be the next man up, though I'm not entirely sure. The kill needs to do a better job despite how great Tampa Bay's man advantage is. I thought this was Tampa's best game of the series, yet the Canes pulled out the win on the road. I'll certainly be celebrating the win tonight and tomorrow, but Saturday provides the chance to make this a best two-of-three. It's only 2-1 now. We've seen it's possible to beat Vasilevskiy. Time to even up the series.