Gourde scores twice, Lightning defeat Predators again

TAMPA --Yanni Gourde scored two goals to help the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-2 win against the Nashville Predators at Amalie Arena on Monday.

Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves for the Lightning (5-1-1), who scored three goals in the first period and completed a two-game sweep of the Predators following a 4-3 win Saturday.
It was Stamkos' third multipoint game of the season.
"First period was really good," Stamkos said. "I thought they had a good push; we knew they would coming off of a loss. We weathered the storm, [Vasilevskiy] made some good saves and we played really well. You get up 4-0, and we just have a tendency to sit back a little too much. But another win here early in the season and we'll certainly take those."

Eeli Tolvanen and Mikael Granlund scored for the Predators (4-5-0). Juuse Saros made 21 saves.
Nashville is 0-4-0 and has been outscored 19-7 against Tampa Bay and the Dallas Stars, who reached the Stanley Cup Final last season.
"It's huge because these are all division games," Predators captain Roman Josi said of their Discover Central Division rivals. "We've got to beat those teams. But you see why they were in the Stanley Cup Final, because they play consistent every night. You know when you play Dallas or Tampa you know what you are getting. They are hard checking teams]; there is no time and space. They do it night after night."
Ondrej Palat gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 9:13 of the first period when he scored on a rebound in front to finish a 2-on-1 opportunity with Stamkos.
Gourde made it 2-0 at 13:59 of the first period with a tip-in off a pass from Tyler Johnson.
Brayden Point gave Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead with one second remaining in the first after a pass from Mathieu Joseph on an odd-man rush.
"I saw [Mikhail Sergachev] just flipping it," Joseph said of the Lightning defenseman. "I looked at the clock when I left the zone. … We got a good bounce, and it was a good job by [Point] keeping the puck on my skate."
Stamkos passed forward
[Martin St. Louis
and set a Lightning record with his 301st power-play point when he scored at 7:23 of the second period to make it 4-0.

He has 158 goals and 143 assists with the man-advantage in his NHL career, all with Tampa Bay.
"It's great to be in the building and be part of the team to watch big milestones happen like that," coach Jon Cooper said. "I didn't realize he was that close until the other night when he tied St. Louis]. You see the two names he's beside (St. Louis and
[Vincent Lecavalier
) and both their jerseys are up in the rafters, so it's pretty heavy company."
Stamkos, who leads the Lightning with nine points (four goals, five assists) in seven games, said he was honored to be in the company of players such as St. Louis and Lecavalier, who scored 297 power-play points with Tampa Bay.
"Anytime you up there with Marty and Vinny in the record books here in Tampa, that means you've been here a long time and are fortunate to have had a lot of success," Stamkos said. "Hopefully there are more power-play points still to come."
The Lightning were 1-for-4 on the power play.
"The penalties [are] a big thing," Predators coach John Hynes said. "We have to put a stop to it and we're going to have a discussion on it before the next game. When you're coming from behind, if it's one or two [goals], you're still right in it. But when it gets to three, you have to overplay some guys that you think are possibly going to be able to produce. But penalty trouble, that's the biggest issue."
Tolvanen made it 4-1 with a one-timer off a pass from Erik Haula at 2:53 of the third period. It was his first goal since December 1, 2018 against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Granlund scored at 5:41 of the third to make it 4-2.
"In the third period we got those two early goals," Tolvanen said." That was a big goal for me. I think we played well [in the third period]. We got the chances, but just couldn't score."
Gourde scored his second of the game with an empty-net goal at 19:44 for the 5-2 final.