A fun night of hockey in Tampa ended in a most pleasing way when Nick Paul tapped home a feed from Jake Guentzel in overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 win over the visiting Nashville Predators. In a night that featured the home crowd cheering after both Predators goals, the Lightning overcame a second period lapse to run their record to 4-1 on home ice.
The reason the home crowd was cheering Nashville’s goals was the fact that Steven Stamkos, in his first game on Amalie Arena ice as a visitor, assisted on both of them. The Captain returned to a standing ovation and a thunderous “STEVE-EN STAM-KOS” chant from the crowd and was named the third star of the game. Unfortunately, his first multi-point game as a member of the Predators helped erase a two-goal lead the Lightning had built in the first period.
Brayden Point opened the scoring with his sixth goal of the season as he cut around Roman Josi in the slot and backhanded a shot under the bar past Juuse Saros.
Brayden Point (Jake Guentzel) 1-0 Lightning
The Lightning continued to press the action in the first period, but Saros held them off until the end, when Mitchell Chaffee split two defenders and beat the goalie cleanly on his forehand. It was a nice burst of speed and finish from the second-year forward who is developing into a nice depth forward.
Mitchell Chaffee (Brayden Point) Lightning 2-0
Early in the second period, it appeared the Lightning had taken a three-goal lead when Guentzel found Nikita Kucherov all alone at the side of the net. Kucherov slammed it into the net for his ninth goal of the season, but Nashville challenged for off-side. A quick review confirmed that the Lightning had indeed brought it in off-side and the goal was overturned.
From there, things went a little wobbly for the home team as Ryan O’Reilly did what he’s been doing for 16 seasons – plant himself in front of the net and score goals. Erik Cernak had fairly decent coverage on him, but O’Reilly was able to get the shot off while he twisted to the ground and it slid between Vasilevskiy’s skate and the post to cut the Lightning lead to one goal. Two ex-Bolts in Jonathan Marchessault and Stamkos picked up the assists on the play.
Ryan O’Reilly (Jonathan Marchessault, Steven Stamkos) Power Play, 2-1 Lightning
With time winding down in the middle frame, the Bolts got caught in a bad line change. Brady Skjei hit Stamkos on a long stretch pass which led to a three-on-none rush down low and Gustav Nyquist buried one past Vasilevskiy off of the feed from Stammer.
Gustav Nyquist (Steven Stamkos, Brady Skjei) 2-2
The Lightning found their footing in the third period, out-chancing the Preds, 15-6, but thanks to some stellar goaltending from Saros they couldn’t find the go-ahead goal. His best save came on Anthony Cirelli, who had bulldozed his way to the side of the net and tried to shove a puck over the goal line, but the Finnish netminder flashed his left pad over in time to deny him.
Nashville had the puck for much of the beginning of the overtime period, but couldn’t get a clean shot on Vasilevskiy, who finished with 35 saves on 37 shots. With less than two minutes to go in the bonus frame, Nick Paul disrupted a clearing attempt by Filip Forseberg, allowing Guentzel to circle back and keep the puck in the zone. He found a seam between the Predators defenders and fed it to Paul at the side of the net who slid it by Saros for the game-winner. With the helper, Guentzel hit the 500 assist mark for his career.
Nick Paul (Jake Guentzel) 3-2 Lightning
