<p>RALEIGH, N.C. &mdash; Barclay Goodrow beat Alex Nedeljkovic for the go-ahead goal at 12:39 of the third period to help the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 on Sunday night to open their second-round playoff series.</p>
<p>Goodrow put the reigning Stanley Cup champions ahead for good when he headed left against Carolina defenseman Brady Skjei, then shot from a sharp angle on the left side. The puck skid underneath Nedeljkovic’s right pad as it lifted slightly off the ice near the post to break a 1-1 tie.</p>
<p>That lead held, with the Lightning holding off Carolina’s final minute with the empty net and extra attacker in a desperate tying attempt.</p>
<p>Instead, the Lightning won a road series opener for the second straight round. The Lightning swept the first two games at Florida in that six-game first-round series.</p>
<p>Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Brayden Point added a second-period goal on the power play for Tampa Bay, while Andrei Vasilevskiy was sharp all day with 37 saves — including 15 in the first period against the Hurricanes buzzing out of the gate backed by a rowdy home crowd of more than 16,000.</p>
<p>Jake Bean scored on the power play to tie it early in the third period for Carolina, notching his first career playoff assist. The Hurricanes, who have home-ice advantage after winning the Central Division, also got another solid performance from Nedeljkovic with 28 saves.</p>
<p>INJURY REOPRT</p>
<p>Tampa Bay didn’t have defenseman David Savard for this one due to an upper-body injury. Then the Lightning saw fellow blue-liner Erik Cernak go down when he got sandwiched between Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov and Victor Trocheck in a collision near the boards at 18:15 of the second.</p>
<p>Cernak eventually got up and skated slowly to the tunnel, leaving the Lightning with five defensemen.</p>
<p>Carolina winger Nino Niederreiter sat out with an upper-body injury after leaving Saturday’s practice early. And that opened a space for Cedric Paquette to make his playoff debut for Carolina — and against his former Lightning teammates after spending 2014-20 with the franchise.</p>
<p>LOUDER HOUSE</p>
<p>The NHL had approved an increased attendance for PNC Arena with the installation of a 500-ton chiller to increase air flow while ensuring integrity of the ice despite the rising temperatures outside.</p>
<p>Carolina had about 5,000 fans to close the regular season, then upped that to about 12,000 for the Nashville series after the state eased public-gathering and physical distancing restrictions. The official figure for Games 1 and 2 of this series is 16,299, roughly 87% of the building’s normal 18,680-fan capacity.</p>
<p>STORM WARNING</p>
<p>David Ayres — the Zamboni driver and kidney-transplant recipient who memorably won a 2020 game in Toronto for the Hurricanes as the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nc-state-wire-raleigh-nhl-hockey-sports-general-3df715e5376a2d19b3d7594b87fe3777">emergency goaltender</a> — sounded the storm-warning siren for the Hurricanes to take the ice for the third period.</p>
<p>Hurricanes TV color announcer Tripp Tracy along with North Carolina State women’s tennis players Jaeda Daniel and Alana Smith — who helped the Wolfpack reach the national semifinals — sounded the pregame and first-intermission sirens.</p>
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