In Tampa, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves to lead the Lightning to a 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night.
Steven Stamkos, Tyler Johnson and Victor Hedman scored for the Lightning.
“I didn’t know [the record vs. Pekka Rinne] so I am surprised,” the Lightning’ Tyler Johnson said. “Every time we play Nashville it seems like it’s a battle. Now that they are in our [Discover Central] Division we’re going to see them a lot more.”
Ryan Ellis staked the Predators to an early 1-0 lead before the Bolts reeled off four straight goals.
“We got ourselves in penalty trouble in the second period,” Predators coach John Hynes said. “That carried into momentum for Tampa and we didn’t do a good job of responding to that momentum. In the third period we dug in and played a lot faster. We executed better and we were a harder team. The second period cost us the game.”
Mathieu Olivier and Viktor Arvidsson cut the deficit to 3-4.
“It’s definitely a big step in my career, getting the first goal is always special,” Olivier said. “But in this case, I don’t think the team was happy with the way we played the second period and the focus was more about coming back in this game. But yeah, a big milestone personally, but unfortunately we didn’t get the win to complement that.”
Callan Foote potted his first NHL goal in the Tampa win.
“It felt unbelievable, it was kind of like a blackout,” Foote said. “You dream your whole life of scoring your first one. I’ll definitely remember that.”
The Bolts improved to 4-1-1.
“The power play scored and that always helps,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “But when we’re having success we shoot the puck, and we didn’t shoot the puck in the first period.
“But I did think we were rewarded in the second for our play, and I think we had gone 6-7 periods without a goal, so at some point the dam had to break. It did in the second and that was enough for us to win tonight.”
Pekka Rinne made 29 saves in the loss.
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