Lightning rally from deep deficit vs. Hurricanes but see 6-game win streak snapped

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Feb 26, 2026

Published in Hockey

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The Lightning found themselves in an early three-goal hole less than seven minutes into Thursday night’s game in Carolina.

But Tampa Bay has shown before that it’s able to survive such surges. It wasn’t that long ago when the Lightning rallied from four down in front of 65,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium to beat the Bruins in their Stadium Series game.

They can strike in a flash, and as quickly as they fell behind, the Lightning were able to cut the Hurricanes’ lead to a single goal going into the first intermission, scoring twice within a 35-second span.

The Lightning rallied from the early deficit to tie twice, but were never able to take a lead, falling 5-4 at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C.

In a game between the top teams in the Eastern Conference — only Colorado has more points than the Lightning and Hurricanes — the Lightning’s remarkable run hit a speed bump.

It marked their second regulation loss since Dec. 20 and their first since a road loss in Columbus on Jan. 24, snapping their six-game win streak. Tampa Bay had been 20-2-1 over a 23-game stretch that began with a home win over the Hurricanes on Dec. 20.

Sebastian Aho gave the Hurricanes the lead for good with a power-play goal at the 7:17 mark of the third period, his shot from above the right circle finding its way through traffic and past Lightning goaltender Jonas Johansson.

Brayden Point’s third goal in two games since returning from a right knee injury tied the score late in the second period, but the Lightning failed to push further. They were held to just six shots on goal, and two in 5-on-5, in the third.

The Lightning knew Thursday night would be a challenge. Playing the second game of a back-to-back out of the Olympic break, Johansson had to shake off some rust early on playing in his first game in 33 days.