Lightning kickstart ’25 preseason with victory in Raleigh

The Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday played 60 minutes on NHL ice for the first time since the Stanley Cup Playoffs in April and left with a win to boot.

The Bolts opened the 2025 NHL preseason on the road with Monday's 2-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at the Lenovo Center.

“It was a lot of fun,” Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson said postgame. "It felt great to be back playing hockey again. It’s been a while, but I think everyone did a great job. We got off to a good start, and good start to the year.”

Tampa Bay’s roster featured a mix of the training camp group, ranging from regular NHL players to young prospects getting their first taste of preseason hockey.

Defenseman Emil Lilleberg was the first player on the scoreboard for Tampa Bay this preseason and handed the visitors a 1-0 lead with only 0.8 seconds remaining in the opening period on Monday.

Lilleberg held the offensive blue line before Lightning forward Wojciech Stachowiak forced a Carolina turnover in the right corner. Stachowiak fed the puck to a driving Conor Geekie, who dropped the puck to Mitchell Chaffee and Lilleberg in the high slot. The latter wired a shot that beat Hurricanes goalie Cayden Primeau at the right post.

Chaffee doubled the lead on a power-play redirection of JJ Moser’s point shot 6:08 into the second period. Chaffee’s goal was his second point of the night, and Geekie also got his second mark on the stat sheet with the secondary assist.

“I thought our power play was moving around pretty well,” Chaffee said. "Obviously it was a great shot, I got a stick on it, and it found the back of the net.”

Geekie got involved physically also, fighting Givani Smith after the latter caught Geekie with a knee-on-knee hit late in the middle frame. Lightning defenseman Steven Santini had 12 penalty minutes for Tampa Bay, and Lilleberg added six more.

Johansson noticed the physicality from the blue paint.

“All these exhibition games are gonna be probably pretty greasy, pretty grumpy,” he said. "I try to stay out of it as a goalie, but it’s great to see everyone sticking up for each other.”

Johansson was busy in the opening 20 minutes for Tampa Bay and remained steady throughout the game to pick up his first win of the preseason. He finished with 29 saves in the victory.

Kevin Labanc appeared to get Carolina's first goal of the game about midway through period three, but a Lightning coach’s challenge overturned the call and maintained the 2-0 score.

The Hurricanes halted Johansson’s shutout bid with 4:08 left in the game, this chance coming on a power-play tip by Logan Stankoven following a Labanc shot.

The Lightning then sealed the win in the game’s final minutes.

Tampa Bay continues the preseason with an 8 p.m. ET start Tuesday in Nashville against the Predators at Bridgestone Arena. The Lightning are already one win away from matching their preseason total from a year ago (2-2-2).

“We’re just looking to get better each game,” Chaffee said. “(For) a lot of us it’s trying to get back into game shape, you’re trying to get back into the game mode of things, and you want to just keep building off it and keep getting better each game. So you kind of just take little things from each game.”

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

1. Jonas Johansson, TBL (29 SVs, W)

2. Mitchell Chaffee, TBL (Game-winning goal, assist)

3. Emil Lilleberg, TBL (Goal)