It was a night full of excitement as the Tampa Bay Lightning took the ice for the first time ever at the newly renamed Benchmark International Arena and Friday night’s matchup between the visiting Carolina Hurricanes and the home Tampa Bay Lightning featured 11 goals scored between the two teams as the offenses provided the spark that set off a thunderstorm inside the arena and provided easy entertainment for the fans in attendance.
The Lightning took an early lead in the first period that they never looked back on and in the end, through power plays, empty nets, and everything that came with this match, they held on to defeat Carolina 6-5 in regular time.
Zemgus Girgensons and Wojciech Stachowiak each had a pair of goals and it was Maxim Groshev and Oliver Bjorkstrand who accounted for the other two goals on the night for the Lightning.
Girgensons came out hot in the first period. He put the Lightning on the scoreboard with his first goal at 5:03 into the period that was assisted by Bjorkstrand and Stachowiak, who both also had huge nights. Girgensons’ second goal and the Lightning’s second of the day was 11:30 into the period with an assist by Victor Hedman.
The Hurricanes scored a goal late in the first period to make it a 2-1 match, but the Lightning answered back in the second period and kept the Hurricanes quiet in the process. Tampa’s second goal was shot off the stick of Stachowiak 19:05 into the period just before the end. The goal that made it a 3-1 match was assisted by the young prospect, Ethan Gauthier and Nick Abruzzese.
The Lightning sent the game to the third period still ahead over the Hurricanes 3-1, but that was quickly a much different story as the third period fireworks sparked and set off.
Maxim Groshev scored Tampa’s fourth goal that made it a 4-1 Lightning lead. He was assisted by Dominic James and Dylan Duke.
The Lightning got two goals back to make it a 4-3 game before the game of pinball started. Stachowiak struck for his second goal of the day 8:55 into the third period. With assists by J.J. Moser and Simon Lundmark, Stachowiak made it a 5-3 game to give the Lightning a little bit of a buffer.
Carolina scored once again to make it 5-4, but then Bjorkstrand struck back with what ended up being the Lightning’s game scoring goal as once the score was 6-4, that was the lead they never looked back on.
The Hurricanes struck for one more goal 19:48 into the period, but it wasn’t enough as the Lightning went on to defeat Carolina 6-5 to go 3-0-0 on the preseason, a strong start from the Bolts.
Stachowiak is the points leader from the game and the first three games as he collected two goals, an assist, three points and was plus-one on the day.
Defensively the Lightning used both Harrison Meneghin and Jonas Johansson in the net. Meneghin got the start. He was 10-for-14 in saves for a .714 save percentage in 19:49 on ice. Next up came Johansson. He saved 16-of-17 shots on goal, allowing just one goal for a .941 save percentage.
The Lightning remain home to take on the Nashville Predators Saturday at 7:00PM EST.