RALEIGH, N.C. — Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves in his season debut and the Lightning had a hat trick and two assists from Brayden Point in an 8-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night.
Nikita Kucherov had two goals and four assists, while Steven Stamkos, Brandon Hagel and Luke Glendening also scored for the Lightning, which won for the fourth time in five games and holds a five-game points streak.
Vasilevskiy, a past winner of the Vezina Trophy (league’s top goalie) and Conn Smyth Trophy (playoff MVP), was in his first NHL game since April following offseason surgery. The Lightning announced earlier in the day that he would be in the net for the team’s first game of a three-game road stretch.
The Lightning scored three power-play goals in the first six minutes of the second period. Those were Tampa Bay’s first three shots on the period after putting the puck on goal only once in the first.
Stefan Noesen and Michael Bunting scored for the Hurricanes, who had a two-game winning streak snapped and lost for just the second time in eight home games this season. Hurricanes goalie Antti Raanta stopped six shots.
Stamkos has scored in four straight games and has nine goals this season.
Carolina’s fourth line, which had been the most active in the opening period, registered the goal on Jack Drury’s pass from behind the net to Noesen with 1:48 to play in the period on the Hurricanes’ eighth shot on goal. It was Noesen’s fifth goal of the season and third in five games.
Jonas Johansson went 8-4-5 as Tampa Bay’s top goalie while Vasilevskiy worked toward a return.
For the Hurricanes, their goalie situation appeared complicated because Raanta left Wednesday’s win over Edmonton after the first period because of an undisclosed ailment. But he was back in action, though he hadn’t allowed more than four goals in any previous game this season.
