The Lightning opened the scoring seven minutes into the first period with Tyler Johnson notching his fifth goal of the season. As Ben Harpur draped all over him in the slot, Johnson managed to sweep home Erik Cernak's feed while falling to the ice to give Tampa Bay the lead.
A bounce went the Lightning's way late in the period, as Mathieu Joseph blasted a shot from the right point that deflected off Mattias Ekholm and past Rinne. Off Joseph's stick, the puck appeared to be going well wide but the deflection brought it back on net, handcuffing Rinne.
Alex Killorn capped a dangerous power play with a goal to push the lead to three early in the second period. After Rinne made several stops to deny the Lightning in the first half of the man advantage, the Preds lost track of Killorn in front of the net and Ondrej Palat found him wide open for a tap-in goal.
Nashville cut the deficit to two halfway through the second. Andrei Vasilevskiy tried to clear the puck but his pass up the wall eluded Blake Coleman and found Viktor Arvidsson instead. From the right point, Arvidsson found Yakov Trenin streaking to the net and he snapped a shot past Vasilevskiy from inside the left circle.
Tampa Bay answered back late in the period to reestablish the three-goal lead. Above the circles, Point cut to the middle of the ice and fired a shot across his body that Rinne couldn't keep out.
A pair of goals from Alexandre Carrier and Erik Haula in the first five minutes of the third period tightened things up. Carrier snapped home a drop feed from Trenin three minutes in and Haula followed with a power play tally at the 5:03 mark to suddenly make it a one-goal game.
Coleman responded at the midway point of the period to put the Bolts back up by two. From along the right wall, Barclay Goodrow picked out Coleman in the slot and lifted a backhander past Rinne.
Ryan McDonagh banked a clearing attempt off the boards and down the ice into an empty net in the final minutes to round out the scoring.
The Lightning and Predators are back at Amalie Arena on Monday evening to close out this two-game set.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
TBL | 6:55 Tyler Johnson (5) - Erik Cernak, Blake Coleman
TBL | 18:35 Mathieu Joseph (6) - Erik Cernak, Steven Stamkos
2nd Period
TBL | 2:24 Alex Killorn (7) - Ondrej Palat, Victor Hedman - PPG
NSH | 12:02 Yakov Trenin (2) - Viktor Arvidsson
TBL | 18:48 Brayden Point (10) - Mikhail Sergachev
3rd Period
NSH | 3:17 Alexandre Carrier (1) - Yakov Trenin, Mathieu Olivier
NSH | 5:03 Erik Haula (3) - Calle Jarnkrok, Nick Cousins - PPG
TBL | 10:02 Blake Coleman (6) - Barclay Goodrow, Tyler Johnson
TBL | 18:26 Ryan McDonagh (3) - Unassisted - EN
