RALEIGH, N.C. – The Carolina Hurricanes opened the scoring in front of a sold-out Lenovo Center, but a pair of power-play tallies and two empty-net goals propelled the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-1 victory in the Canes’ season opener on Friday.

GAME SUMMARY | BOX SCORE | UPCOMING GAMES

After the teams traded power play opportunities in the early going, Canes captain Jordan Staal broke the ice at 14:32 of the first as he tapped home a William Carrier wraparound feed in the crease.

Carolina carried a 1-0 lead into the middle stanza, but Tampa equalized through Brayden Point just 2:33 into the frame. With the game deadlocked at one apiece in the third, the Bolts struck again on the man advantage as Nikita Kucherov grabbed the eventual game-winner at 11:06. Tampa’s #86 also tacked on a pair of empty-netters in the final moments of play to complete his hat-trick.

Frederik Andersen got the nod between the pipes for Carolina’s first outing, finishing with 19 saves on 21 shots.

Stats & Standouts

• Special teams loomed large at Lenovo Center – while Tampa converted two high-leverage man-advantage situations, Carolina went 0-for-4 on the power play.
• Skating in his home-ice debut, 21-year-old Jackson Blake logged 10:57 of ice time – 1:23 of which was power-play time. Rod Brind’Amour said post-game that he “would have liked to have gotten him out there a little more.”
• Four skaters – William Carrier, Jack Roslovic, Eric Robinson and Sean Walker – made their Hurricanes debuts on Friday.

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They Said It…

Rod Brind’Amour’s assessment of the loss, post-game…

“We’ve seen (their power play) for years and we got Kucherov’d tonight. More than that, we were not good and I thought they played a great game. They shut us down, didn’t give us a lot of room and we weren’t willing to work hard enough to get our opportunities.”

Jordan Staal sharing similar thoughts…

“The whole game wasn’t great. You can look at special teams, but even our five-on-five play was pretty gross, really. A lot of turnovers and trying to mosey on through the neutral zone when nothing is there. We really weren’t ready to embrace the grind and go muck it up.”

Andrei Svechnikov on how the team bounces back from tonight and discussing what he saw going wrong…

“To be honest, we just need to stay focused. We know what we’ve got to do. The older guys, and me as well, didn’t do the system our way and we have to follow that.”

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What’s Next?

The Canes are scheduled to be off on Saturday and return to practice on Sunday. The game previously scheduled for Saturday in Tampa has been postponed.

Next Game: Tuesday, October 15 vs. New Jersey | FIRST RESPONDERS NIGHT presented by Celito | Tickets | Parking

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