Tampa Bay’s Zemgus Girgensons scored his first two goals of the season and Andrei Vasilevskiy beat the Nashville Predators for a 10th straight time as the visiting Lightning won 5-2 on Tuesday.
Vasilevskiy needed to make just 18 saves in helping Tampa Bay win its third straight.
Charle-Edouard D’Astous scored his first career goal in his third NHL game, while Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov tallied a goal and an assist each for the Lightning. Anthony Cirelli and Pontus Holmberg both assisted on two goals each.
Nashville’s Luke Evangelista scored his first goal of the season, and he added his fifth assist of the year on Filip Forsberg’s goal. Erik Haula assisted on both.
Juuse Saros stopped 25 of the 29 shots he faced as Nashville lost its second straight.
The Predators had the first six shots on goal, challenging Vasilevskiy with those in the first three minutes. After that, the Lightning goalie faced two more shots in the first period and just three in the entire second frame.
Tampa Bay started the scoring midway through the first period, taking advantage of a shaken-up Tyson Jost. The Predators center became hobbled after blocking a shot from the point by Emil Lilleberg. While Jost struggled to skate, Girgensons raced past him into the slot to convert Holmberg’s pass from behind the net.
Hagel doubled the Lightning lead with 4:23 left in the second. Seconds after a power-play opportunity ended, he found the puck in the crease behind Saros and needed a couple whacks at it to get it across the goal line.
Nashville finally got on the board with 14:55 left in regulation on a power play. Evangelista, who drew a slashing penalty on Dominic James, cashed in the opportunity as he beat Vasilevskiy on a rebound off Haula’s shot on goal.
Less than three minutes later, D’Astous, a 27-year-old defenseman, restored Tampa Bay’s two-goal lead.
Forsberg again cut it to a one-goal game with 2:06 left, just seconds after leaving the penalty box.
However, Kucherov added an empty-netter, and then Girgensons beat Saros. Both of those goals came in the final minute.
–Field Level Media
