Feb 26, 2026; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman (77) goes to clear the puck away for behind Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Jonas Johansson (31) during the second period at Lenovo Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images

For a red-hot moment, it looked like the Tampa Bay Lightning were going to duplicate their 6-4 win over the Carolina Hurricanes from back in December. They went down 3-0 before rallying back to tie it. Then they gave up a fourth goal before tying it. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find the fifth goal before the Hurricanes did and Sebastian Aho’s power play goal in the third period proved to be in the difference in the 5-4 win for the Hurricanes.

“We allowed them to get behind us,” is how Rob Zettler explained the first ten minutes of the game. The Lightning were aware of the fact that Carolina likes to throw the puck in and hunt it down, but just because they knew what was coming didn’t mean they could stop it. Before they knew it, it was 3-0 less than seven minutes into the game as Nik Ehlers, Logan Stankoven, and Taylor Hall beat Jonas Johansson.

To their credit, the Lightning didn’t fold. They battled back with goals from Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov before the period ended. Less than two minutes into the second period, Dominic James tied the game with his sixth goal of the season. Seth Jarvis made it 4-3, but Brayden Point answered with a power play goal at the fourteen minute mark to tie the game again. Aho made it 5-4 seven minutes into the third period and the Carolina defense tightened up, preventing the Lightning from generating much offense until they pulled Johansson. Even then the Lightning were scrambling a bit and had to make a few saves with the empty net, not exactly ideal for coming back.

Jake Guentzel ended the night with three assists while Nikita Kucherov scored to run his point streak to 12 games. Brayden Point picked up the 350th assist of his career to go along with his goal and now has 9 points (4 goals, 5 assists) in his last 4 games. Jonas Johansson took the loss, making 28 saves on 33 shots against.

They’ll have Friday off before returning home to take on the Buffalo Sabres in a key Atlantic Division match-up.

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