In Nashville, the Predators surrendered the opening goal of the game to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, then reeled off five unanswered strikes in a 5-1 win.
Juuse Saros made 32 saves in the win.
The Predators improved to 14-12-0 off their third straight win.
“Really happy for the penalty kill to step up the way they did against arguably one of the greatest power plays of all time,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said after his team was 4-for-4 on the kill. “Obviously [Saros] played a big part in that, but those are big kills that squashed any momentum that we might’ve lost. Our power play was opportunistic and had a couple of big goals.”
Alex Barré-Boulet was the lone striker for the Lightning, his goal them a 1-0 lead at 13:32 of the first stanza.
“We’re playing a decent road game, and then they get two quick ones in the second,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Once that happened, we never punched back. That’s probably the most disappointing thing about the game. I mean you’re not going to win every game, but let’s give a push. Whether you’re up or down or protecting the lead or trying to come from behind, especially in that case, you’ve got to punch back. And we didn’t tonight.”
Tampa dropped to 12-11-5.
Nashville replied with a power play marker from Juuso Parssinen at 17:14 of the first to tie it, 1-1.
Filip Forsberg put the Preds up, 2-1 at 2:37 of the middle frame, also off the power play.
“Two big goals coming from each unit,” the Predators’ Tommy Novak said. “I thought we worked it around pretty well. Our entries were solid. It was a really big special-teams game for us. Probably the game-changer, so it was nice for us to get those two goals.”
Ryan McDonagh extended the advantage to 3-1 at 4:32 of the second.
“I’ve been getting some looks here,” McDonagh said. “I’ve been hoping to do it sooner, but at the end of the day it was just trying to keep a puck alive there, creep down and keep something alive. The puck just squirted out to me, and I tried to get as much as I could on it.”
In the third, Roman Josi ,ade it 4-1 to Nashville at 6:11 of the period.
Yakov Trenin hit an empty net for the 5-1 final at 13:13l.
Jonas Johansson made 25 saves in the loss.
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