After trailing for a majority of the game, Tampa Bay exploded for five goals in the final period Friday night at AMALIE Arena to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 8-5 and win its first game of the preseason.
Gabriel Fortier recorded a hat trick to pace the Lightning attack. Fortier netted the go-ahead goal - his second of the game - with 8:06 remaining to give the Bolts their first lead of the preseason at 6-5.
The Lachine, Quebec native added a shorthanded tally with 3:27 to go to build the Lightning cushion and net his third goal of the game. Fortier also had a second-period goal that got Tampa Bay to within a goal after the Hurricanes had built a 3-1 lead.
"He's a competitor. He's fast. And he was great on the PK. He earned his goals tonight," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "He had three, probably thought he was going to have four. That post got in the way a few times. He just competes hard. I don't want to start comparing him to people because then that's an unfair moniker, but you win with guys like Fortier. He's got a lot of growing to do in his game, but he's just one of those guys that he's gotten better every year and he competes. You want those guys. So, if he keeps going here, we'll see what happens here down the stretch, but he's definitely made a name for himself, so good for him."
On Fortier's hat trick goal, he won a face-off to Ondrej Palat, who returned the puck back to him for a quick-fire shot before the Hurricanes could respond.
"I'm not use to taking face-offs," Fortier said. "I think the last time I took a face-off was a year ago. Good face-off and Pally just tapped it right to me. Didn't even look, just threw it at the net and got lucky."
The Lightning and Hurricanes combined for four goals in a 2:16 span midway through the third period to turn a 4-3 Bolts deficit into a 6-5 lead. Pat Maroon scored in his preseason debut at 9:38 of the third to level the score 4-4, but Carolina went back into the lead 13 seconds later on C.J. Smith's second goal of the game.
The Bolts tied the game for a fourth time less than a minute later when Brayden Point fired into the net from the slot at 10:43 of the third.
Then Fortier took over to give the Lightning the lead and keep them there.
Carolina opened scoring 6:31 into the contest on a tough-angle shot along the goal line by Derek Stepan that snuck behind Lightning goalie Hugo Alnefelt before he could pull it back. Initially there was no goal signal on the ice until the officials conferred near the scorer's table and, after some discussion, a goal was signaled. Upon review, the call on the ice was confirmed.
The Lightning have given up the opening goal in all three games of the preseason so far.
Palat leveled the score 1-1 at 11:54 of the first off a beautiful passing sequence between the Bolts' top line. All three players - Palat (goal, 2 assists), Brayden Point (goal, 2 assists) and Nikita Kucherov (3 assists) - finished with three points on the night.
Carolina went up 3-1 on goals from Spencer Smallman (14:37 - 1st) and Jordan Martinook (6:33 - 2nd). After Fortier got the Lightning within a goal, Corey Perry tallied on the power-play in his Lightning debut to make it 3-all heading into the final period.
"Great guy," Victor Hedman said of his new teammate Perry. "We were very fortunate to get a guy like that. We knew it was going to be tough to replace the guys that we lost, but at the end of the day we were very fortunate to get (Pierre-Edouard Bellemare) and Corey. Today was a preseason game, but we know what they're going to bring when the regular season starts. They're two tough players to play against. It's going to be fun to have them on our side."
Perry added an empty-net goal with 1:42 to go for his second of the game.
Alnefelt started and played the entire game, stopping 39 of the 44 shots he faced to earn the first victory for a Lightning netminder this preseason.
Cooper challenged his team Friday after their compete level wasn't where it needed to be in a 6-2 loss to Nashville a night earlier.
The Lightning responded.
"I thought there was a response during the whole day," Cooper said. "I think we had to have a little reality check on where we were at in the preseason. Not necessarily looking at wins and losses, it's that aside, it's guys stepping up and wanting to make an impression and try and make this team. Our urgency level just wasn't there in for sure the second game and some of the first. But, tonight, I thought guys worked. There was a lot of young guys in this game on both teams and everybody worked. The vets worked. Rookies worked. It wasn't a fun night for the goalies, but it was probably an entertaining one for the fans, I'll tell you that. But, everybody worked, and that's a good sign."
The Lightning complete their three-games-in-three-nights stretch Saturday when they travel to Nashville to take on the Predators at Bridgestone Arena (8 p.m. Eastern puck drop).
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