Mitchell Chaffee and Conor Geekie lead the Lightning to Victory

Hockey is back and the Lightning bolted into the 2025 season with a win in their first preseason game against the Carolina Hurricanes. Leg by Mitchell Chaffee and Emil Lilleberg, the Lightning defeated Carolina 2-1 to open their 2025 preseason slate.

Lilleberg, entering his third season with the Lightning, opened the scoring  with a first period goal with less than a minute to go in the period. Mitchell Chaffee and Conor Geekie had the assist for Tampa Bay.

After an assist to Lilleberg in the first period, Chaffee, also entering into his third season with the Lightning, scored the game’s second goal of the day on a power play just over six minutes into the second period. He was assisted by the veteran defenseman, J.J. Moser and Geekie who had his second assist of the day.

Logan Stankoven got the Hurricanes on the board late in the third period, but that was the only goal the bolts surrendered as they went on to defeat Carolina 2-1 to open their preseason slate with a strong win.

In total, the Lightning had 20 shots on goal and Carolina had 30. But Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson was lights out behind the net blocking 29 out of 30 shots for a .967 shot save percentage to open the season. 

The Lightning defensemen were also lights out in support of Johansson as they accumulated for 16 blocked shots. Simon Lundmark had three blocked shots and Moser accumulated four himself.

Moser had a heck of a day accumulating the four blocks and an assist that helped the lead the Lightning to a Monday night win.

The offensive leaders in the first match of the year were Geekie and Chaffee. Geekie earns two points on two assists and was +1 on the day and Chaffee also opens the preseason with two points on a goal and an assist, also going +1 on the day.

The Lightning will remain on the road, heading from Carolina tonight to Nashville tomorrow as they prepare to take on the Nashville Predators at 8:00PM EST at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Tuesday night.