The Hurricanes opened their season with a loss on Friday.
The Carolina Hurricanes had their season opener postponed by Hurricane Milton, but finally began their season on Friday. Unfortunately, it did not begin on the right foot. Carolina fell on Friday night to Nikita Kucherov and the Tampa Bay Lightning by the score of 4-1.
Kucherov was a major factor in his team's victory on Friday. In fact, he scored a natural hat trick in the third period to lift the Lightning to victory. Two of his team's goals came on the power, including the first of Kucherov's goals. After the game, Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour admitted that Kucherov got the better of his team.
“We've seen (their power play) for years and we got Kucherov'd tonight… 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,” Brind'Amour said, via team reporter Walt Ruff.
Rod Brind'Amour, Hurricanes fall to Nikita Kucherov, Lightning
Rod Brind'Amour and the Hurricanes got off to a fine start on Friday night. Captain Jordan Staal gave his team the lead near the end of the first period after finding space near the goal. Carolina remained in the lead until the second period when Brayden Point tied things up.
Unfortunately, the Hurricanes collapsed in the third period. Nikita Kucherov scored his first goal midway through the third period on the power play. Later on, he scored two empty net goals to put Carolina away for good. The Lightning star ended the night with four points as he added the primary assist on Point's goal in the second period.
Another pair of Lightning stars had multi-point games, as well. Newly named captain Victor Hedman provided two assists in the win. And Hurricanes fans watched as former Carolina forward Jake Guentzel provided two assists of his own. Guentzel played for the Hurricanes in the second half of last season, scoring eight goals in 17 regular season games. He went on to add four goals in 11 playoff games, as well.
The Hurricanes certainly hope to put this loss behind them. And they won't need to wait long to try to avenge this loss, either. Carolina travels to Tampa on Saturday night to face the Lightning once again. It will be interesting to see if the Hurricanes can pick up a win over the Lightning and grab some momentum back after their season-opening loss.
