Lightning Announce 2012 Preseason Schedule

The Tampa Bay Lightning will play a total of seven preseason games in 2012, the team announced today. They will kick off their preseason schedule on Wednesday, September 26 against the St. Louis Blues at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. The Lightning will also play three consecutive nights to open the exhibition schedule.

The Lightning will host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, September 27 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. The game will mark the fifth time the Lightning have played an exhibition game in Orlando. The last time the Bolts played in Central Florida was last September, when they fell 4-3 to the Blues at the Amway Center.

Following their game in Orlando, the Lightning will travel to St. Louis the next day to take on the Blues at the Scottrade Center. The club will then head to Carolina on Sunday, September 30 to play the Hurricanes at 2 p.m. at the recently-renamed PNC Arena in Raleigh.

Tampa Bay will begin a stretch of three consecutive games against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, October 2 when they host their division rivals in Estero, Florida at the Germain Arena. The game will mark the fifth time the Lightning have hosted a preseason game at the home arena of their ECHL affiliate, the Florida Everblades.

The Lightning will then host the Panthers on Thursday, October 4 at the Times Forum before travelling back down south to play them at the BankAtlantic Center two nights later to round out their preseason schedule.

The following is the schedule of games for the Lightning’s 2012 preseason: