To wrap up a trying week that forced them to depart days early for Raleigh to avoid the impacts of Hurricane Milton, the Lightning opened the 2024-25 season with a 4-1 victory on the road in Carolina.

Nikita Kucherov paced Tampa Bay’s attack, factoring on all four goals and recording a natural hat trick in the third period. Victor Hedman, skating in his first regular season game as the Lightning’s captain, registered three assists.

Andrei Vasilevskiy got the start in net to begin the season and stopped 20 of 21 Carolina shots.

The Bolts were originally scheduled to turn around and face the Hurricanes again on Saturday in Tampa to open their home schedule, but that game has been postponed to a later date as the area continues to recover from Milton. Instead, the Lightning will be back in action on Tuesday when they host Vancouver at AMALIE Arena.

Scoring Summary
1st Period
CAR 1, TBL 0
14:32 Jordan Staal (1) – William Carrier
The Bolts were in good position to break out of their own zone, but pressure from Jordan Martinook forced Brandon Hagel to double back behind his own net. Hagel eventually lost the puck to William Carrier, who circled the net and fed Jordan Staal in front for the game-opening goal.

2nd Period
CAR 1, TBL 1
2:33 Brayden Point (1) – Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman – PPG
After being held without a shot on their first chance with the man advantage, Brayden Point leveled the score 12 seconds into their second opportunity. Point took a feed from Nikita Kucherov in the bumper position, avoided a check from Dmitry Orlov and beat Frederik Andersen to level the score at one.

3rd Period
TBL 2, CAR 1
11:06 Nikita Kucherov (1) – Victor Hedman, Nick Paul – PPG
Another quick strike power play goal gave the Lightning the lead at 11:06 of the third. Six seconds into their sixth power play chance of the night, Victor Hedman teed up Kucherov for a heavy one-timer from the top of the right circle that beat Andersen.

TBL 3, CAR 1
17:53 Nikita Kucherov (2) – Jake Guentzel, Erik Cernak – EN
Kucherov hit the empty net from center ice with just over two minutes remaining in the game to open up a 3-1 lead for Tampa Bay.

TBL 4, CAR 1
19:44 Nikita Kucherov (3) – Jake Guentzel, Victor Hedman – EN
Kuchero completed his third period natural hat trick with 16 seconds remaining when he buried an empty netter for the second time.