RALEIGH, N.C. -- By the final seconds, the Tampa Bay Lightning seemed to check all the boxes again.

It took to the very end Tuesday night for that, but the Lightning were in good shape at that stage in their 5-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.

The outcome was secure when Tampa Bay right winger Nikita Kucherov extended his season-opening points streak to 10 games with a goal with four seconds left.

It was a nice finishing touch.

"Especially when you're winning and we get 'Kuch' one at the end to keep his streak going," said center Steven Stamkos, who also has a 10-game points streak. "The good thing is there is a lot more we can do."

Tyler Johnson had a goal and assist as the Lightning (8-1-1) remained the top team in the NHL.

Mikhail Sergachev also scored for the Lightning, who were headed toward a fifth one-goal victory until empty-net goals from Vladislav Namestnikov and Ryan Callahan. Then came Kucherov's league-leading 11th goal.

It was the first two-point game of the season for Johnson.

And Tampa Bay won despite shaky moments in the third period, so coach Jon Cooper could add that to the list of areas to improve.

"We just came out (in the third period) and gave it to our goaltender and said 'You win this one for us,'" Cooper said. "We played with fire a little bit and we got away with it. We let them back in to it."

Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves and notched his eighth victory of the season. He allowed defenseman Jaccob Slavin's goal with 16:32 remaining.

But the Lightning didn't flinch. They've already been in a bunch of these types of games.

"We knew it wasn't going to be a run-and-gun game," Stamkos said. "Obviously, 5-1 wasn't indicative of the game."

Johnson scored on a power play with 35 seconds remaining in the first period. He knocked the puck in after Ondrej Palat's shot trickled off goalie Scott Darling's body.

Sergachev's second-period goal came when Stamkos corralled a loose puck in front of the net and regained his balance before delivering a pass.

Stamkos, the NHL scoring leader, produced his 19th and 20th points of the season with assists.

Sergachev, a rookie, has scored four goals in the past three games.

The Hurricanes (3-3-1), playing at home for the first time in two weeks, couldn't keep up.

"We need quicker execution, better execution," Carolina coach Bill Peters said. "Again, I don't think we were as good as we can be offensively. We had some power-play opportunities early in each period and didn’t take advantage of them."

Carolina cut the deficit to 2-1 when Slavin delivered after right winger Josh Jooris did much of the grunt work to keep the puck. Jooris picked up his first point with the Hurricanes with an assist.

Carolina has scored nine of its 17 goals this season in the third period.

It was previous wasted chances that might have been most disturbing. The Hurricanes had power plays early in each period, including in the opening minute of the second and third periods.

"We can have a little better instincts to put the puck in the net," center Jordan Staal said.

Vasilevskiy came up big during those sequences.

"(Vasilevskiy) is a big part of the penalty kill," Stamkos said. "They gave a good push and our goalie had some big saves."

Darling posted 24 saves, with 18 of those in the opening two periods.

Johnson has five goals in 15 career games against Carolina.

NOTES: Hurricanes C Elias Lindholm played in his 300th NHL game (all with Carolina). ... The Hurricanes were coming off a Saturday loss at Dallas, where they allowed three third-period shots. Then Tampa Bay managed only five shots for the first 18 minutes Tuesday until a power play. ... Lightning RW J.T. Brown was in the lineup for only the second time this season. ... While the teams meet again in January, the Lightning won't return to Carolina until the April 7 regular-season finale. ... The Lightning are home for its next two games, beginning Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings. The Hurricanes play Thursday night at Toronto.