Off the heels of back-to-back wins against the Anaheim Ducks and Las Vegas Golden Knights, the Tampa Bay Lightning were looking to make in three in a row on Tuesday on the road against the Nashville Predators.
And they did just that. The Lightning dominated on the ice on Tuesday, defeating their former veteran Steven Stamkos and the Predators 3-1 to claim their third straight victory.
Zemgus Girgensons got the Lightning offense started 10:31 into the first period on. A snap shot that got passed Juuse Saros for to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead. He was assisted by Pontus Holmberg and Yanni Gourde.
The Lightning extended their lead in the second period as Brandon Hagel scored his second goal of the season on a wrist shot that was assisted by Anthony Cirelli.
The Lightning gave the Predators an advantage in the third period when Erik Cernak was penalized two minutes for holding to stick of Filip Forsberg. The Predators took advantage and scored on a power play goal 12:02 into the period to make it a 2-1 match and cut the Lightning’s lead in half. Luke Evangelista had the goal while Erik Haula and Brady Skjei were credited with the assists.
But Tampa answered right back when Charle-Edouard D’Astous scored his first goal of the season on a wrist shot. He was assisted by Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov who each now have six assists on the season.
The third period got wild as after the Lightning answered back, so did the Predators who were not giving up. Filip Forsberg scored his fourth goal of the season with an assist by Luke Evangelista and Haula and to make it a 3-2 game.
But Kucherov said ‘not so fast,’ as he scored Tampa’s fourth goal of the game and his second of the day on an unassisted, empty-net solo wrist shot that made it a 4-2 game.
Then Girgensons solidified the win when he scored his second goal of the season and the game on a wrist shot that was assisted by Holmberg and Erik Cernak to make it a 5-2 Lightning lead that they never looked back on.
The Lightning went on to defeat the Predators 5-2 and solidified their third straight victory to improve to 4-4-2 on the year.
Up next they will head home to Tampa to take on the Dallas Stars. Coverage is on TNT and HBO Max with puck drop set for 7:00PM EST.