Tampa Bay Lightning Vs. Carolina Hurricanes Game 3: How To Watch, Betting Preview

The Tampa Bay Lightning hold a two-game series lead against the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the NHL Playoffs. Here’s a preview for game three.

How to Watch: The Lightning and Hurricanes will air on USA Network, a unit of Comcast Corporation CMCSA, at 8 p.m. ET.

Betting Preview: The Hurricanes find themselves down two games to none in the series but have good news.

Both wins by the Lightning came with scores of 2-1 and featured only three total points total from the dynamic scoring duo of Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov. Both of those stats suggest the Hurricanes were in both games and kept the best players for the Lightning in check.

Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic has a 4-4 record in the playoffs with a GAA of 2.18 and save percentage of .920. Nedeljkovic was named a Calder Finalist earlier this week as one of the top rookies in the NHL this season.

The Lightning beat the Florida Panthers four games to one game in the first-round series. In the five games, the Lightning won with scores of 5-4, 3-1, 6-2 and 4-0. The Lightning lost two games with scores of 5-6 and 1-4. Only one of the first-round games featured the Lightning scoring under three goals.

Stamkos has nine points in eight playoff games and a career playoff scoring tally of 63 points in 79 games.

Kucherov has 12 points in eight playoff games, with 11 points coming in the first round. Kucherov, who missed the regular season has 107 points in 98 career playoff games.

Bets to Watch: DraftKings Inc DKNG has the Lightning as the favorite to win the game at -152 and the Hurricanes the listed underdog at +130.

The over/under is offered at 5.5 goals with the under paying -124 and the over paying +102.

Kucherov has odds of +160 to score a goal and -240 to get a point.

Stamkos has odds of +175 to score a goal and -162 to get a point.

This could be a trap game for the Lightning with the Hurricanes not wanting to go down 3-0 in the series. I see a breakout coming from the Lightning offense and think the Kucherov, Stamkos and over props could all be in place for Thursday’s game.