RALEIGH — The Hurricanes made a post-deadline statement against the Western Conference-leading Jets on Sunday. On Tuesday, they sent a message to one of the Eastern Conference’s top contenders.
Carolina got goals from Seth Jarvis, Jordan Martinook, Jack Roslovic and Sean Walker, and goalie Pyotr Kochetkov outplayed counterpart Andrei Vasilevskiy in the Hurricanes’ 4-1 win over the Lightning at Lenovo Center.
“I told him to be the best Russian goalie out there tonight, and he did that,” Roslovic said of Kochetkov, who made 23 saves and set a new career high with his 24th win of the season.
The visiting Lightning dominated play for much of the first half of the game, but it was the Hurricanes who found ways to score.
Tampa Bay pelted Kochetkov for more than 100 seconds on an early power play, tiring out Carolina’s penalty killers. But the Hurricanes finally got a whistle, and Sebastian Aho got Jarvis in the clear on the following shorthanded shift. Jarvis snapped a quick shot from the left circle over the left shoulder of Vasilevskiy to open the scoring at 4:29 of the first.
“They did definitely the heavy lifting of it,” Jarvis, who got his 26th goal of the season, said of Carolina’s first group of penalty killers. “That’s an elite power play over there, and those guys shut them down pretty good. Glad I got to reap the benefits of it.”
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour added, “We got fortunate there that they didn’t score, and Jarvis made probably the best play of the night.”
The Lightning continued to press as the midway point of regulation approached, but a dominating shift by the line of Aho, Jarvis and Jackson Blake tipped the momentum.
The following shift, Logan Stankoven set up Jordan Staal for a chance that Vasilevskiy stopped with his right pad, but Martinook then put a seemingly harmless shot on net that trickled through the Tampa Bay goaltender to double the lead at 12:56 of the second.
“That’s probably the best shift they had all night,” Brind’Amour said of his top line. “It was in their end for quite a while, a lot of good opportunities. And then Vasilevskiy made a couple just unbelievable saves. And you’re like, geez. And then, you never know when one might go in, and I’m sure he wanted that one back.”
The Carolina ended the period with another goal when an outlet pass by Jalen Chatfield created a 2-on-1. Taylor Hall accelerated up the left wing and saucered a pass to Roslovic, who scored his 20th goal of the year with 45 seconds remaining in the middle frame to extend the lead to 3-0.
“Unreal,” Roslovic said of Hall’s pass. “I slowed down just a little bit, and he made a great pass, great play.”
The goal was Roslovic’s 20th of the season and 100th of his NHL career.
Tampa Bay forward Gage Goncalves and Carolina defenseman Sean Walker exchanged goals in the third period — both for their third goals of the season — and the Hurricanes finished off their fifth consecutive win, outshooting the Lightning 31-24.
“I think everybody will say that this is the time of year you really want to find your game,” Walker said, “and I think we’re kind of getting to that point. So it’s definitely a good thing.”
Notes: Andrei Svechnikov and Dmitry Orlov missed the game with injuries. … Jordan Staal (11:24) and Martinook (10:54) had season lows in time on ice. … Walker and Chatfield were both plus 3. … The Hurricanes went 0 for 5 on the power play.
