NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Zemgus Girgensons scored two goals to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
Brandon Hagel, Nikita Kucherov, and Charl-Edouard D’Astous also scored for the Lightning, while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 18 saves. After winning just one of their first seven games of the season, the Lightning have now won three straight.
Anthony Cirelli and Pontus Holmberg each recorded two assists for Tampa Bay.
For Nashville, Luke Evangelista scored a goal and added an assist, and Filip Forsberg also found the back of the net. Juuse Saros made 25 saves for the Predators, who suffered their second consecutive loss.
Girgensons opened the scoring with the game’s first goal at 10:31 of the opening period. He had missed the first seven games of the season due to an upper-body injury. Later, he added his second goal late in the third period.
Hagel doubled Tampa Bay’s lead at 15:37 of the second period. Just eight seconds after a Lightning power play expired, Hagel corralled a loose puck following a scramble in front of the Nashville net and slipped it past Saros. Cirelli assisted on Hagel’s goal, marking his 300th career NHL point. Hagel has tallied two goals and four assists in his last three games.
Evangelista scored a power-play goal at 5:05 of the third period. After missing all of training camp, Evangelista signed a two-year, $6 million contract on October 4th.
D’Astous, playing in his third career NHL game, scored his first NHL goal at 7:58 of the third period.
Forsberg cut the Lightning lead to one at 17:54 of the third with Saros pulled for an extra attacker, but Kucherov’s empty-net goal restored Tampa Bay’s two-goal cushion and sealed the victory.
Nashville successfully killed all four Lightning power plays during the game. They have allowed just one opponent power-play goal at home in 27 times short-handed this season.
Up next:
– The Lightning will host the Dallas Stars on Thursday night.
– The Predators will visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.
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