By JOEDY McCREARY
AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Tyler Johnson had a power-play goal and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning pulled away to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 on Tuesday night.
Steven Stamkos had two assists, giving him league leads with 17 assists and 20 points, and Nikita Kucherov scored his 11th goal with 4 seconds left. Both players have 10-game points streaks - one shy of Martin St. Louis' 8-year-old club record to begin a season.
Rookie Mikhail Sergachev also scored, and Vladislav Manestnikov and Ryan Callahan added empty-netters to help the Lightning pad their league leads with eight victories and 17 points. They earned a point in their eighth straight game, improving to 7-0-1 in that stretch.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 30 shots for Tampa Bay.
Jaccob Slavin scored and Scott Darling made 24 saves for the Hurricanes, playing their first home game in two weeks.
Slavin pulled Carolina to 2-1 with 16:32 remaining, beating Vasilevskiy with a wrist shot from between the circles to finish a chaotic sequence that included a pileup in front of the Tampa Bay goal.
Vasileskiy was strong after that, with his best save coming midway through the third period when he went low to stop Derek Ryan from point-blank range. Manestnikov restored the Lightning's two-goal lead with 2:33 left and Callahan added one with 1:20 remaining.
Sergachev, a rookie skating in his 10th career game, put the Lightning up 2-0 at 9:13 of the second period with a knuckleballing shot from the circle that capped a furious sequence in front of Darling. All four of Sergachev's goals have come in his last three games.
Johnson scored first for Tampa Bay with 35 seconds left in the first period and with 5 seconds left on a holding penalty to Justin Williams. Johnson whacked in the rebound of Ondrej Palat's shot into an open net.
NOTES: Carolina C Elias Lindholm skated in his 300th career game. ... Johnson nearly had a Gordie Howe hat trick. He scuffled with Carolina RW Justin Williams late in the second period while teammate Victor Hedman received a roughing minor. ... Carolina's Sebastian Aho rang the left post on an early third period power play.
UP NEXT
Lightning: Return home, where they are 5-0-0, to face Detroit on Thursday.
Hurricanes: Visit Toronto on Thursday night before playing two home games this weekend.
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