The Lightning quench the Hurricanes

Johansson's 32 saves snuff out Carolina

A wall in Tampa

The Carolina Hurricanes came to Amalie Arena as the league's second-best club last season. The Tampa Bay Lightning had finished 13th. On qualification night, none of that counted for anything. One loss and a candle goes dark before the Gauntlet has really begun.

Carolina fired 32 shots at Jonas Johansson. He stopped every one of them. The Hurricanes' flame went out without a single goal, and when the night was over 29 candles still burned on the shelves.

Point strikes first

Martin Necas went off for high sticking at 18:52 of the first. At 19:06 Brayden Point tipped in a power-play goal, set up by Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov. That goal stood as the winner.

Pyotr Kochetkov held it at one until 17:51 of the second, 18:45 after the opener. Then Alex Barré-Boulet tipped home another, with Darren Raddysh and Point assisting.

Tempers in the third

Nicholas Paul sealed it at 17:04 of the third with a slap shot, set up by Brandon Hagel and Mikhail Sergachev. The penalty sheet blew up at that same second: Hagel for roughing, Dmitry Orlov for two roughing minors and a 10-minute misconduct, and Brendan Lemieux for a misconduct of his own. At 18:04 Paul and Jack Drury dropped the gloves. Kochetkov finished with 20 saves on 23 shots. Johansson had the zero, and the Lightning burn on.