RALEIGH, N.C. — The Lightning emptied another road arena on Tuesday night, and turned out the lights on the Carolina Hurricanes.
Tampa Bay is back among the NHL’s final four teams, advancing to the Stanley Cup semifinals with a 2-0 Game 5 win over Carolina at the PNC Center.
After ending the Hurricanes season in five games in the second round, the Lightning will advance to play the winner of the East Division matchup between the Islanders and Bruins. New York leads that series 3-2 going into Wednesday’s Game 5.
The Lightning finished third in the Central Division in this year’s abbreviated 56-game regular season, but proved they were the best team in the postseason, eliminating both teams that finished ahead of them.
The Hurricanes finished with the third-best record in the league, a relentless team that suffocates opponents and feeds off mistakes to create offense. But the battle-tested Lightning proved up to the challenge, and they are now halfway to a second straight Stanley Cup.
Game 5 tilted over a 38-second span early in the second period. The game was still scoreless when seconds into a Tampa Bay power play, Carolina had a shorthanded 2-on-1 breakaway that put every one of the roughly 15,000 fans at PNC Arena on their feet.
Nikita Kucherov turned the puck over in the neutral zone, Eric Staal leading a rush along the left side before he fed Vincent Trocheck charging toward the near post. That’s when Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy slid from one side to the other and made a glove save to stop Trocheck’s shot heading for the top shelf.
On the other end, Alex Killorn stormed off the Lightning bench and took the puck along the far wall, worked around Trocheck and by a diving Brett Pesce as he crossed the right circle before feeding Brayden Point along the near post.
Point took the pass on his backhand side, faked to his forehand side, sending Carolina goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic to his left, before going back to his backhand side and tucking the puck high inside the near post.
That sent PNC Arena into a chorus of loud boos about the interference call on Jani Hakanpaa after he was tussling with Pat Maroon during a faceoff.
The Lightning’s fourth line didn’t get much ice time, but was brilliant. They frustrated the Hurricanes on the forecheck, and were rewarded in the third period on Ross Colton’s goal from the right circle. Tyler Johnson buzzed around the net all night.
Vasilevskiy, who allowed four goals on 25 shots in Game 4, stopped all 29 shots in Game 5, recording his second series-clinching shutout this postseason. He also had 29 saves in the Game 6 win over Florida that advanced Tampa Bay to the second round.
