Johansson makes 32 saves, Point has goal, assist, as Lightning beat Hurricanes 3-0
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jonas Johansson made 32 saves, Brayden Point had a goal and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0 on Tuesday night.
Alex Barré-Boulet and Nicholas Paul had the other Tampa Bay goals.
The Lightning were coming off a 4-3, overtime loss to Toronto on Saturday night in which they blew a late two-game lead.
“To close it out is a step in the right direction,” Point said. “Liked the way we tried to limit their chances and obviously J.J. with the shutout.”
Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 20 shots for the Hurricanes, who have lost three in a row and wrapped up a six-game road trip at 2-4.
“We all know we’re certainly not playing up to our ability,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’ve got to find that team game that we’ve done so well over the years.”
Johansson is filling in for Andrei Vasilevskiy, who had back surgery last month and is expected back in late November or early December. He made a nice save midway through the third on Martin Necas for his first shutout this season and second overall.
“Sometimes you get lucky and you get a shutout," Johansson said.
Point, who had 51 goals last season, broke a season-opening six-game goal drought with a deflection of Victor Hedman's shot during a power play with 54 seconds remaining in the first.
Barré-Boulet made it 2-0 on a redirection at 17:51 of the second. Point picked up his eighth assist on the goal. Paul scored with about three minutes to play in the third period.
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper called it “a pretty complete game.”
The game had a chippy ending with a couple of scrums and a fight during the final three minutes following Paul's goal.
Tampa Bay went 1 for 4 on the power play against the Hurricanes' 31st road penalty kill. Carolina failed to score on its four power plays.
“You've got to win the special teams battle,” Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “We've been struggling on the kill, so we've got to figure that out.”
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos didn't have a shot on goal for the second consecutive game.
Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho returned after missing three games with an upper body injury.
QUOTABLE
Cooper when asked if it surprises him that chemistry on defense sometimes doesn’t carry over from year-to-year:
“I’ll be honest. One player who will go unnamed is not with us any longer, he said he needs a complete system review coming into camp every year because he’s completely forgotten it by the time the summer is over," he said. "So that will tell you what the players need and I think he’s speaking for a lot of players.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Hurricanes: G Frederik Andersen, who took a shot off the mask a week ago and missed two games, was the backup. … RW Andrei Svechnikov (knee) took part in the morning skate but didn’t play. … D Brett Pesce (lower body) didn’t make the trip.
UP NEXT
Hurricanes: Return home Thursday night to face Seattle.
Lightning: Host San Jose on Thursday night.
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