Hurricanes finally crack Vasilevskiy in wild second period ... then give it all back

The Carolina Hurricanes finally cracked Andrei Vasilevskiy. Finally had him rattled. Got four goals past him in the first 33 minutes Saturday, including Jaccob Slavin’s bad-angle goal that got over Vasilevskiy’s right shoulder on the short side.

Then they gave the lead away, and Vasilevskiy was back to his old self, stopping the final nine shots he faced after giving up four goals on the first 16.

With Saturday’s 6-4 win to take a 3-1 lead in the series, the Tampa Bay Lightning goalie has now won 10 straight in the playoffs after a loss, dating back to the Lightning’s sweep at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019.

“You score four in a period and you’re feeling good,” Slavin said. “Then the momentum kind of swings. You can’t let that happen.”

It was the first time since 2010 that two teams combined for eight or more goals in a playoff period and the 12th time in NHL history.

Phantom penalty

There were some odd penalty calls in Saturday’s first period, and even before the first period. The matching unsportsmanlike minors to Warren Foegele and Blake Coleman before puck drop meant the opening faceoff was taken four-on-four, perhaps a first in NHL playoff history. But the strangest one was the rescinded high-sticking call on Brady Skjei.

Skjei clipped Nikita Kucherov in the visor and was escorted into the penalty box, only to be released seconds later. The NHL never provided an official explanation, but apparently one of the linesman made the high-sticking call, not one of the referees, and linesmen are only allowed to call four-minute high-sticking penalties.

Per the NHL rulebook, one of the very few occasions linesmen are allowed to call a penalty is “when it is apparent that an injury has resulted from a high-stick that has gone undetected by the Referees and requires the assessment of a double-minor penalty.”

So: no blood, no call. And a break for the Hurricanes, who ended up killing two actual penalties later in the period before the Lightning broke through with three power-play goals in the second period.

Clutch

Only three players have scored more overtime goals in a single postseason than Jordan Staal’s two so far: Maurice “Rocket” Richard (1951), Mel Hill (1939), Corey Perry (2017), all with three.

Former Hurricanes defenseman Niclas Wallin, who scored four in his career, is one of 56 others with two in a postseason, in 2002.

Ch-ch-ch-changes?

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour has generally resisted tinkering with his lineup, with the exception of inserting Maxime Lajoie for Jake Gardiner in the first round while Slavin was out and the switch to Petr Mrazek in net in Game 3, but there may be changes ahead with the two-day gap between Game 4 and Game 5.

Nino Niederreiter and Vincent Trocheck have two more days to recover from their injuries (Trocheck made the trip to Tampa, while Niederreiter did not) as does Foegele, who played in Game 4 after suffering a shoulder injury in Game 3. Alex Nedeljkovic will likely be back in net after Mrazek struggled in Game 4. And after yet another game where Jake Bean looked overwhelmed -- and was victimized on the Lightning’s sixth goal -- it would not be a surprise to see Lajoie or Gardiner draw in on defense.

That’s most likely Gardiner since the Hurricanes can protect his matchups at home, but Lajoie showed in the Nashville series he’s capable of playing playoff-level defense. At forward, Max McCormick remains the next available player.