Goaltender Jonas Johansson recorded his second career shutout, Brayden Point broke a season-long goalless drought and the Tampa Bay Lightning earned a 3-0 win over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.
Johansson stopped all 32 shots he faced in running his record to 3-1-2 in his first season with the Lightning.
The 28-year-old netminder’s first shutout was a 28-save showing for the Colorado Avalanche at the Anaheim Ducks on April 9, 2021.
Point, a 51-goal scorer last season but scoreless through this season’s first six matches, hit the net in the first period on the power play. He added an assist for the only multi-point effort of the game.
Alex Barre-Boulet scored for the second straight game, and Nick Paul added a marker.
Nikita Kucherov assisted on Point’s goal, marking the 41st time the right wing has made the score sheet in the past 45 home games.
The Lightning improved to 3-0-1 at home and are 2-0-1 on their five-game homestand.
The Hurricanes welcomed back star top-line center Sebastian Aho, who had missed the past three games with an upper-body injury.
Goalie Pyotr Kochetkov (0-3-0) made 20 saves. He was called up last week from the Syracuse Crunch — the Lightning’s affiliate, as Carolina has no AHL club.
The Hurricanes fell to 2-4-0 on their six-game road trip.
After killing off the first Tampa Bay power play, the Hurricanes’ troublesome penalty kill — ranked 29th — could not weather the second one after Martin Necas went to the penalty box for high-sticking late in the first period.
Parked in front of Kochetkov, Point redirected Victor Hedman’s shot from up high and sent it in for his first tally with just 54 seconds left in the frame.
In the second, Carolina made a strong push, using its forecheck to keep the pressure in the offensive end, but Barre-Boulet’s effort late in the period put the home side up 2-0 with 2:09 remaining.
Following his fake and move around Kochetkov, Barre-Boulet zipped a pass out to Darren Raddysh. The defenseman sent a shot wide, and Barre-Boulet stepped in and tapped home his second goal of the season.
With just under three minutes left in the game, Paul put the win to bed with a one-timer from the left dot, finishing a pass from Brandon Hagel for his fourth tally of the season.
–Field Level Media
