from Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times,

Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal’s overtime goal Thursday night not only silenced the largest crowd to watch a game at Amalie Arena in more than 15 months, it also pumped life into his team.

The Lightning may have played their best game of the second-round playoff series against the Hurricanes — they controlled the puck, manufactured scoring chances and revived their power play — but Game 3 ended with a 3-2 loss in front of an announced crowd of 13,544.

The Lightning could have put the Hurricanes’ season on the ropes with a win. Instead, Carolina got its first victory of the series, cutting its deficit to 2-1.

“I think our team has gotten better every single game, and that’s what I’ve liked,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We’ve just got to keep going. You can hang your head on these (kinds of losses). You’ve just got to turn the page and go to the next one.

“The playoffs are a big damn roller coaster, and you can’t get too excited when you’re high, can’t get too low when it’s low, and you’ve just got to keep trusting in your process.”

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