Lightning power play needs to make quick decisions against Hurricanes - Tampa Bay Times

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RALEIGH, N.C. — The Lightning’s vaunted power-play unit was held to just one shot on goal by the Carolina Hurricanes during Game 1 on Sunday.

But that one shot — Brayden Point’s second-period tip-in 1:19 into Tampa Bay’s first power play midway through the second period — found the back of the net in Tampa Bay’s 2-1 win at PNC Arena.

While that one shot was game-changing, it wasn’t nearly the volume or production the Lightning saw in the first round against the Panthers. Tampa Bay converted 40 percent of its power play opportunities (8-for-20) in that series.

But there’s not a more aggressive penalty-kill unit in the league than the Hurricanes’. Using some of their fastest and most offensive-minded skaters, such as Sebastian Aho and Martin Necas, they apply pressure in all three zones and force you to make quick decisions.

“They don’t give you a lot of space,” Point said. “They force you to make quick plays, and if you bobble a puck they’re on you right away. And another thing actually is their up-ice pressure. They did a great job disrupting our breakout. We were lucky enough to get a chance and we capitalized on it but, yeah, that’s something we’ve got to look at, for sure.”

The Hurricanes had the league’s third-best penalty-kill unit (85.2 percent) during the regular season and entered this series ranked third among playoff teams (88.5). They didn’t allow a power-play goal in 13 home penalty-kill situations in their first-round series against the Predators.

Carolina’s pressure won’t allow Tampa Bay to set up its power play and pick apart defenses with its bounty of scoring weapons. The Hurricanes hope to make things chaotic for a power-play unit and force it into a mistake. The Lightning will have to think quickly — and one step ahead — to be successful.

“They’re taking the gamble that you can’t make plays under pressure, and we’re saying we can,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Sometimes penalty kill works and sometimes it ends up in the net like it did (Sunday) night. The thing is, they do it really well. There’s a reason they had one of the top penalty kills in the league, because they’ve got a plan. It’s just not all run-and-gun and hope the other team screws up.

“They pressure you hard, they know where they’re going, and when they’re going. And so you have to work, the power play has to work to get to their spots and know where guys are. You have to think and make plays at a high rate of speed, and basically that’s how we ended up scoring our goal.”

Before the Lightning scored their goal, they struggled getting the puck out of their own zone. It took them 69 seconds into the power play to make a shot attempt, a blocked shot off the stick of Hedman.

On Point’s goal, Hedman had to act quickly. After a puck battle along the far wall, Nikita Kucherov passed the puck to Hedman at the point, and Hedman quickly sent it toward the front of the net as Point got inside leverage on Carolina defenseman Jani Hakanpaa. Hedman saw just enough area to find Point’s stick for a redirect past Carolina goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic.

“I was trying to find a stick, and good tip by him,” Hedman said.

The Lightning manufactured just eight shot attempts, seven of which were blocked, during their 4 minutes, 34 seconds of power-play time. The Hurricanes had more shorthanded shots on goal (two). But as the game progressed, Tampa Bay’s players clearly bought into the idea that they needed to direct more pucks toward the net quickly. They had a game-high four shot attempts on their final power play of the night.

“They converge so hard to the puck, and a lot of times they’re successful in getting it,” Lightning forward Alex Killorn said. “But if you can make a play where it gets through a guy, then they have two guys going to one, that’s when plays will open up, and I think that’s kind of what happened on Pointer’s (goal). Pointer had half a step on a guy, and he makes a great play.

“There’s different ways to do it. I think you just have to stick with it. I mean, we had nothing going in that first power play, and we end up scoring at the end.”

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