Lightning are too much for Nashville

In Tampa, the Lightning scored three times in the first and once in the middle frame for a4-0 lead over the Nashville Predators on Monday night.

The Preds responded with a meek two goals in the third, but were unable to climb the hill in a 5-3 loss.

Yanni Gourde scored twice for the Lightning.

“It’s great to be in the building and be part of the team to watch big milestones happen like that,” Bolts head coach Jon Cooper said. “I didn’t realize he was that close until the other night when he tied [St. Louis]. You see the two names he’s beside (St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier) and both their jerseys are up in the rafters, so it’s pretty heavy company.”

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves for the win.

Eeli Tolvanen and Mikael Granlund were the Preds’ strikers in the third period.

“It’s huge because these are all division games,” the Predators’ Roman Josi said. “We’ve got to beat those teams. But you see why they were in the Stanley Cup Final, because they play consistent every night. You know when you play Dallas or Tampa you know what you are getting. They are hard checking [teams]; there is no time and space. They do it night after night.”

Steve Stamkos, Ondrej Palat and Brayden Point added single markers for the Bolts.

“First period was really good,” Stamkos said. “I thought they had a good push; we knew they would coming off of a loss. We weathered the storm, [Vasilevskiy] made some good saves and we played really well. You get up 4-0, and we just have a tendency to sit back a little too much. But another win here early in the season and we’ll certainly take those.”

Tampa improved to 5-1-1.

Juuse Saros made 21 saves in the loss.

“In the third period we got those two early goals,” Tolvanen said.” That was a big goal for me. I think we played well [in the third period]. We got the chances, but just couldn’t score.”

Nashville dropped to 4-5-0.

“The penalties [are] a big thing,” Predators head coach John Hynes said. “We have to put a stop to it and we’re going to have a discussion on it before the next game. When you’re coming from behind, if it’s one or two [goals], you’re still right in it. But when it gets to three, you have to overplay some guys that you think are possibly going to be able to produce. But penalty trouble, that’s the biggest issue.”