Sunday night’s Tampa Bay Lightning game started ugly but ended with a beautiful finish as the home team overcame a slow start and 1-0 deficit to hand the Nashville Predators a 3-2 loss.
The Lightning have now earned standings points in eight straight games and are 46-21-6 on the season.
"I love them. They're the best. They're like my kids, and sometimes you've gotta reprimand them,” Cooper said of his team trailing but still getting points. “This group, they just have an innate ability to right the ship. Most nights they don't need me. Some nights they do, and I just think fatigue is playing a major part in this whole thing."
Tampa Bay was held to a single shot on goal through the first 20 minutes of hockey at Benchmark International Arena. Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson kept the visitors off the scoreboard over a period in which the Predators outshot Tampa Bay 10 to one.
"He was unbelievable,” Lightning forward Jake Guentzel said of his goalie. “The last couple weeks we haven't helped him out in front of him too much, so for us it was a big thing. We've got to help him out, and he's been really good for our team. He definitely won us that game."
Tampa Bay’s one shot on goal was their fewest in any period this season.
"If you take literally the first period of our last five games and bundle that up, it would be an elite video on how not to play hockey,” Cooper said. “The side note of that is, then they really find a way after that in the final two to pull themselves back into the fight and then they've been rewarded. It doesn't usually work like that. We're in a pretty fortunate stretch. I've liked a lot of the things we've done, but our first periods have been first periods to forget."
Nashville took advantage of the home team’s slow start, and a breakaway chance gave the visitors a 1-0 lead—forward Joakim Kemell was held up on a breakaway chance and knocked into Johansson, and the puck crossed the goal line 8:31 into the second period.
The Lightning got a bounce they needed later in the middle frame to tie the score, this time on a Guentzel scoring chance.
Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh’s shot from the point was blocked by the Predators near the net, but the puck launched to an open Guentzel at the bottom of the left faceoff circle. Guentzel fired his 35th goal of the season into the open cage for a 1-1 game with 6:28 left in the period.
Guentzel now has a four-game goal streak for Tampa Bay.
“For some reason we haven't started on time in the last four or five (games), but we've realized after the first that we need to be better,” Guentzel said. “Just the pushback, the belief in this group, we believe we're never out of it. So it's a good trait to have.”
Raddysh’s assist on the play was his 66th point of the season, tying Victor Hedman (2024-25) for the fourth-best offensive season by a defenseman in team history. Hedman owns each of the top three seasons.
The Lightning then took their first lead of the game 4:33 into the third period on another play involving Guentzel. The forward prevented a Nashville exit at the top of the offensive zone and fed a pass to Brandon Hagel near the front of the net. Hagel outwaited Goalie Justus Annunen and fired a shot off the left goalpost and in for a 2-1 lead.
That advantage only lasted 20 seconds, however, as a Filip Forsberg shot from deep deflected off two Lightning players and bounced into the net.
“You can only do so much,” Johansson said of the bounces. “Those goals, they happen once in a while. You can’t stop all the pucks but I’m trying my best. They got two and we got three, so that’s enough.”
And still, Tampa Bay didn’t relent—defenseman Emil Lilleberg’s shot pass to the slot was sent through Annunen’s leg pads by Guentzel two minutes after Forsberg’s tying goal, and Corey Perry tapped home the loose puck at the left post to reclaim the Lightning lead with 13:08 left in the game.
“I saw Lilleberg, I was at the back post. I was just trying to set up so it didn't go by me and it was just laying there,” Perry said of the play. “I don't know how it got there.”
Guentzel finished with a game-best three points in the win that saw six Bolts register a point. Johansson did his part on Sunday, stopping a short rush chance for Zachary L’Heureux in the second period and finishing the game with 29 saves.
“We played a good team tonight, so it was a tight game,” Johansson said. “Both teams had their chances, but we managed to get some real pressure there in the third and got some pucks in, so that was really nice. And we’re just happy for the two points.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
1. Jake Guentzel, TBL (Goal, 2 assists)
2. Corey Perry, TBL (Game-winning goal)
3. Jonas Johansson, TBL (29-save win)
