In Raleigh, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning continued their recent good fortunes with a solid 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday.
Mitchell Stephens and Steve Stamkos scored in the opening period to stake the Lightning to a 2-0 lead.
“[Verhaeghe] made an unbelievable pass, great vision on the play,” Stephens said. “I just tried to get it off as quickly as possible.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves to backstop the win.
“For the shot volume team that they are, we kind of kept them off the board a little bit,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “To get the goals early and make them have to catch up was a benefit for us.”
Andrei Svechnikov was the lone scorer for the Canes when he potted a goal in the third period.
“We gave them everything they got to start the game.” Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “The first two goals we gave to them. That’s something we can’t afford to do.”
Brayden Point scored in the middle frame to extend the Bolts’ lead to 3-0.
“To jump out to that 3-0 lead, it gave us some wiggle room to catch our breath a little bit,” Stamkos said. “You could tell we were fatiguing a little bit toward the end of the game, but we stuck with it.”
[WATCH: All Lightning vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Petr Mrazek made 23 saves in the loss.
“They were just better than us,” Svechnikov said. “They were way more faster, way more physical, and we didn’t play our game. We didn’t play (well) in the first two periods, and it cost us.”
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