NHL-Schedules.com

Carolina Hurricanes at Tampa Bay Lightning

Benchmark International Arena, Tampa Preseason Final

Final score

The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6–5 on Friday, September 26, 2025 at home.

Team Goals 2025-2026 record
Carolina Hurricanes 5 53-22-7
at Tampa Bay Lightning 6 50-26-6

Goals by period

Team Total
Carolina Hurricanes 1 0 4 5
Tampa Bay Lightning 2 1 3 6

Shots on goal by period

Team Total
Carolina Hurricanes 6 11 14 31
Tampa Bay Lightning 11 10 7 28

Three stars

  1. W. Stachowiak, Tampa Bay Lightning (2 goals, 1 assist)
  2. Z. Girgensons, Tampa Bay Lightning (2 goals)
  3. D. James, Tampa Bay Lightning (1 assist)

Scoring summary

Period Time Team Goal Assists Type Score
1st 05:03 Tampa Bay Lightning Zemgus Girgensons (1) Oliver Bjorkstrand (2), Wojciech Stachowiak (1) Even strength CAR 0, TBL 1
1st 11:30 Tampa Bay Lightning Zemgus Girgensons (2) Victor Hedman (1) Even strength CAR 0, TBL 2
1st 14:46 Carolina Hurricanes Givani Smith (1) Kevin Labanc (3), Ryan Suzuki (1) Even strength CAR 1, TBL 2
2nd 19:05 Tampa Bay Lightning Wojciech Stachowiak (1) Ethan Gauthier (1), Nick Abruzzese (1) Power play CAR 1, TBL 3
3rd 02:55 Tampa Bay Lightning Maxim Groshev (1) Dominic James (1), Dylan Duke (1) Even strength CAR 1, TBL 4
3rd 03:25 Carolina Hurricanes Gleb Trikozov (1) Justin Robidas (1) Even strength CAR 2, TBL 4
3rd 04:15 Carolina Hurricanes Jesperi Kotkaniemi (2) Bradly Nadeau (1) Even strength CAR 3, TBL 4
3rd 08:55 Tampa Bay Lightning Wojciech Stachowiak (2) J.J. Moser (2), Simon Lundmark (1) Even strength CAR 3, TBL 5
3rd 10:00 Carolina Hurricanes Noel Gunler (1) Joel Nystrom (1), Justin Robidas (2) Even strength CAR 4, TBL 5
3rd 12:27 Tampa Bay Lightning Oliver Bjorkstrand (1) Jake Guentzel (1), Nikita Kucherov (1) Power play CAR 4, TBL 6
3rd 19:48 Carolina Hurricanes Bradly Nadeau (1) Givani Smith (1), Joel Nystrom (2) Even strength CAR 5, TBL 6

Numbers in brackets are the player's season totals after the goal.

Team stats

Stat Carolina Hurricanes Tampa Bay Lightning
Shots on goal 31 28
Power play 0 of 7 2 of 3
Penalty minutes 6 14
Hits 24 24
Blocked shots 19 7
Giveaways 5 9
Takeaways 2 1
Faceoffs won 28/58 (48.3%) 30/58 (51.7%)

Box score

Carolina Hurricanes

Carolina Hurricanes skaters
Player
16 R. Suzuki C 0 1 1 -1 0 2 0 0 0 50% 13:51
23 J. Slavin L 0 0 0 -2 0 0 0 1 0 13:40
28 W. Carrier L 0 0 0 -1 0 0 4 1 0 10:44
29 B. Nadeau L 1 1 2 +2 0 3 0 0 0 20:40
38 N. Gunler R 1 0 1 +1 0 1 0 0 0 16:31
42 G. Smith R 1 1 2 +1 2 2 7 1 0 15:22
43 T. Jost C 0 0 0 +2 0 5 3 0 0 22:05
46 J. Robidas C 0 2 2 +2 2 0 1 1 0 40% 15:43
61 K. Labanc R 0 1 1 0 0 4 0 1 0 33.3% 17:41
73 G. Trikozov L 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 2 0 09:09
76 S. Brind'Amour C 0 0 0 -1 0 5 0 1 0 54.5% 15:09
82 J. Kotkaniemi C 1 0 1 +1 0 3 3 1 0 57.9% 17:43
6 M. Reilly D 0 0 0 +2 0 1 1 0 0 19:05
21 A. Nikishin D 0 0 0 -1 0 1 1 4 0 21:49
25 G. Bayreuther D 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 1 0 17:29
58 O. Kylington D 0 0 0 -1 0 0 1 2 0 16:20
64 J. Nystrom D 0 2 2 +3 2 2 1 0 0 18:59
72 B. Montgomery D 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 14:52
Carolina Hurricanes goalies
Goalie
35 A. Miftakhov 28 22 6 .786 58:20 Loss

Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay Lightning skaters
Player
6 N. Abruzzese C 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 10:36
17 D. James C 0 1 1 -2 0 0 2 3 0 27.3% 15:32
19 W. Stachowiak L 2 1 3 +1 0 3 2 0 1 55.6% 12:16
21 B. Point C 0 0 0 -1 2 3 0 0 0 44.4% 16:24
22 O. Bjorkstrand R 1 1 2 +2 0 3 0 0 1 100% 13:21
28 Z. Girgensons C 2 0 2 +1 4 2 2 0 0 14:25
53 D. Duke L 0 1 1 -2 6 1 1 1 0 13:01
59 J. Guentzel C 0 1 1 -1 0 2 1 0 0 100% 19:16
62 J. Finley C 0 0 0 +1 0 0 3 1 0 54.5% 14:51
86 N. Kucherov R 0 1 1 -1 0 1 1 0 0 17:34
89 E. Gauthier R 0 1 1 0 0 0 4 0 0 11:17
96 G. Szturc C 0 0 0 -1 2 2 1 0 0 12:06
7 S. Lundmark D 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 15:42
24 M. Crozier D 0 0 0 -1 0 4 3 0 0 25:51
52 M. Groshev D 1 0 1 0 0 4 1 1 0 17:35
77 V. Hedman D 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 07:24
78 E. Lilleberg D 0 0 0 -1 0 0 3 0 0 22:57
90 J. Moser D 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 26:03
Tampa Bay Lightning goalies
Goalie
1 H. Meneghin 14 10 4 .714 19:49 Win
31 J. Johansson 17 16 1 .941 40:00

Penalties

Period Time Team Player Infraction Minutes
1st 06:07 Tampa Bay Lightning Dylan Duke High sticking 2
1st 19:09 Tampa Bay Lightning Gabriel Szturc Tripping 2
2nd 07:22 Carolina Hurricanes Justin Robidas Tripping 2
2nd 09:44 Tampa Bay Lightning Dylan Duke High sticking double minor 4
2nd 17:10 Carolina Hurricanes Joel Nystrom Holding 2
3rd 11:34 Carolina Hurricanes Givani Smith High sticking 2
3rd 15:24 Tampa Bay Lightning Brayden Point Tripping 2
3rd 15:36 Tampa Bay Lightning Zemgus Girgensons High sticking double minor 4

Game information

Carolina Hurricanes head coach
Rod Brind'Amour
Tampa Bay Lightning head coach
Jon Cooper
Referees
Jean Hebert, Jake Brenk
Linesmen
CJ Murray, Tyson Baker
Carolina Hurricanes scratches
Jordan Staal, Taylor Hall, Frederik Andersen, Mark Jankowski, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jordan Martinook, Jaccob Slavin, Nikolaj Ehlers, Sebastian Aho, Jalen Chatfield, Cayden Primeau, Sean Walker, Eric Robinson, K'Andre Miller, Andrei Svechnikov, Jacob Kucharski, Domenick Fensore, Pyotr Kochetkov, Seth Jarvis, Ronan Seeley, Logan Stankoven, Jackson Blake, Aleksi Heimosalmi, Yegor Naumov, Nikita Guslistov, Alexander Perevalov, Simon Forsmark, Alexander Pelevin, Nils Juntorp, Jakub Vondras, Vladimir Grudinin, Jayden Perron, Felix Unger Sorum, Alexander Rykov, Stanislav Yarovoi, Charles Alexis Legault, Ruslan Khazheyev, Timur Mukhanov, Michael Emerson, Egor Velmakin, Dominik Badinka, Juha Jaaska, Nikita Artamonov, Noel Fransén, Alexander Siryatsky, Oskar Vuollet, Justin Poirier, Timur Kol, Fyodor Avramov, Roman Shokhrin, Andrey Krutov, Ivan Ryabkin, Kurban Limatov, Semyon Frolov, Charlie Cerrato, Roman Bausov, Viggo Nordlund, Filip Ekberg
Tampa Bay Lightning scratches
Ryan McDonagh, Yanni Gourde, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Scott Sabourin, Nick Paul, Steven Santini, Brandon Halverson, Darren Raddysh, Erik Cernak, Anthony Cirelli, Boris Katchouk, Brandon Hagel, Thomas Miller, Charles-Edouard D'Astous, Pontus Holmberg, Jakob Pelletier, Reece Newkirk, Mikhail Shalagin, McKade Webster, Mitchell Chaffee, Gage Goncalves, Lucas Mercuri, Roman Schmidt, Niko Huuhtanen, Jack Harvey, Daniil Pylenkov, Cooper Flinton, Matt Pietroniro, Declan Carlile, Conor Geekie, Ryan Fanti, Klavs Veinbergs, Dyllan Gill, Connor Kurth, Milo Roelens, Jayson Shaugabay, Brendan Furry, Chris Harpur, Tristan Allard, Warren Clark, Ethan Hay, Marco Mignosa, Hagen Burrows, Jan Golicic, Joona Saarelainen, Kaden Pitre, Joe Connor, Noah Steen, Spencer Kersten, Benjamin Rautiainen, Aiden Foster, Everett Baldwin, Caleb Heil, Roman Luttsev, Grant Spada

2025-2026 season series

Matchup Status Details
Tampa Bay Lightning 2 at Carolina Hurricanes 1 Final Preseason Game page
Carolina Hurricanes 5 at Tampa Bay Lightning 6 Final Preseason Game page

Other NHL games on Sep 26

Matchup Status Details
Detroit Red Wings 2 at Pittsburgh Penguins 3 Final Preseason Game page
New Jersey Devils 4 at New York Islanders 2 Final Preseason Game page
Winnipeg Jets 0 at Edmonton Oilers 4 Final Preseason Game page
Seattle Kraken 2 at Vancouver Canucks 4 Final Preseason Game page
Vegas Golden Knights 2 at San Jose Sharks 1 Final Preseason Game page

Sources and further reading

More schedules