By Mike Bonts, Florida Sports Day
TAMPA – The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 6-5 on Friday night at Benchmark International Arena. Tampa Bay is now 3-0-0 in the preseason with four games left before the start of the regular season.
Oliver Bjorkstrand provided what proved to be the game-winning goal on the power play at 12:27 of the third period. Zemgus Girgensons scored the first two goals of the game. Wojciech Stachowiak scored two goals and added an assist in his second preseason contest
The last time the Lightning opened the preseason 3-0-0 was the 2013-14 preseason. The Lightning were outshot 31-28, including a 14-7 deficit in the third period. 13 of 18 Lightning skaters recorded at least one point.
The Bolts return to action Tuesday night at Kia Center in Orlando to take on the Florida Panthers at 7 p.m.
Game Notes: Girgensons played in all 82 games for the Bolts last season and tallied two goals and six points. Stachowiak spent last season playing in the DEL for ERC Ingolstadt where he posted goals and 30 points in 52 GP. Bjorkstrand played on Tuesday night at Nashville and recorded an assist. Maxim Groshev recorded a team-high (tied) four shots on goal and scored his first goal of the preseason…Groshev played in 56 games for AHL Syracuse last season and tallied seven goals and 14 points. JJ Moser recorded a team-high 26:03 of time on ice and added an assist in his second preseason contest of 2025…Moser appeared in 54 games for the Bolts last season, recording two goals and 14 points. Nikita Kucherov recorded an assist on Bjorkstrand’s goal in his first preseason action of
2025…Kucherov sits six points shy of 1,000 for his career before the start of the regular season.
