The Tampa Bay Lightning are off to a hot start in 2025! After defeating the Carolina Hurricanes in game one of the preseason on Monday they were back on the ice on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. It was an exciting match between the two clubs and so exciting that it couldn’t be decided in full time as the Lightning went on to defeat the Predators in the third round of a shootout for a 3-2 win to improve to 2-0 on the preseason.
Brady Martin put the Predators in front first in the second period with a goal that was assisted by Matthew Wood to go up 1-0 over the Lightning.
With 15:18 left in the second, they extended their lead on a second goal by Martin that was assisted by Michael Bunting and Wood again as well.
The Predators took the 2-0 lead into the third period and the Lightning came back out on a mission.
With 10:32 remaining in the period the Lightning struck on Sam O’Reilly’s first goal as a bolt. He was assisted by the veteran Oliver Bjorkstrand to cut the Predators’ lead in half.
As time began to wind down on the game, Jakob Pelletier snuck one between the posts to score Tampa’s second goal of the period and time the game 2-2. He was assisted by Grant Spada and Steven Santini.
The score remained deadlocked 2-2 at the end of regulation and free extra hockey was next.
The former Lightning Steven Stamkos was the first to shoot. His shot was blocked before Gage Golcalves’ shot was saved to keep the game going into a second round of shootouts.
Up next was Filip Forsberg for Nashville and Bjorkstrand for Tampa Bay. Both of their shots were saved as well to send the match into a third shootout round.
Jonathan Marchessault’s shot was saved and the game was finally decided on Boris Katchouk’s goal for Tampa Bay that solidified the 3-2 win over Nashville for Tampa.
Tampa Bay used two goalies throughout the course of this match. Brandon Halverson started the goal between the posts. He saved 20 of 22 shots on goal for a .909 save percentage in 39:58 on the ice.
The Lightning then brought in Caleb Heil. He was 7-for-7 on saves, for a perfect 1.000 save percentage in 25:00 on the ice.
In total, the Lightning had 24 shots on goal compared to Nashville’s 29. The Predators won 53.2 percent of face-offs over Tampa’s 46.8 percent.
Overall, Nashville had the better stats on the night, but Tampa found a way to win when they needed to the most and they went on to win 3-2 to improve to 2-0 on the preseason.
Up next for Tampa they will head back home! They will take on the Carolina Hurricanes Friday at 7:00PM at the newly renamed Benchmark International Arena. They will then welcome Nashville to Tampa on Saturday for a 7:00PM matchup to wrap up the first week of preseason matches.