Vasilevskiy makes 36 saves, Lightning shut out Predators

NASHVILLE --Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 3-0 win against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday.

Vasilevskiy's shutout was his fourth this season and 25th in the NHL.
"He's so good for us every single night," said Lightning forward Yanni Gourde, who had a goal and an assist. "We can trust him every single night. It's amazing what he does back there. That first period, they had close to 20 shots, and there were some grade A's in there and he turned back all of them. He's so good for us every single game."

Ross Colton and Erik Cernak scored for the Lightning (28-11-2), who have won two in a row after losing five of their previous seven. Forward Steven Stamkos did not play because of a lower-body injury.
Tampa Bay is 6-1-0 against Nashville this season.
Pekka Rinne made 31 saves for the Predators (22-19-1), who had won three in a row and lost for just the third time in 14 games. Defenseman Ryan Ellis had two shots and two hits in 19:43 in his return after missing the previous 20 games because of an upper-body injury.
"I felt better than expected," Ellis said. "The team as a whole, it's like night and day. I feel when I get hurt, every night was a battle and we were working and nothing was happening for us. Tonight, it felt like years past where we were buzzing in the [offensive] zone, making good plays, getting chances. Obviously, we didn't connect on any, but I think we had three breakaways, a couple of 2-on-1s."
Colton gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 6:45 of the first period. Gourde received a stretch pass from Mikhail Sergachev before spinning and finding Colton, who faked a forehand shot and slid the puck five-hole on his backhand.
"The first period was the least amount of scoring chances they had," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "It looks bad because of the shots if you're looking at those stats, but [Vasilevskiy] could see them and I think that was the big thing for us. What I didn't like was just the fact that we were spending so much time in our [defensive] zone. We kind of figured out what we had to do there in the second and third. It got better for us."

Ellis appeared to score at 3:58 of the second period on a shot from the point, but Cooper challenged the play for offside, and the call was reversed after a video review.
Cernak then made it 2-0 at 14:04 of the second with a wrist shot from the high slot that deflected in off of Ellis.
"Guys were just making plays, guys were holding pucks and working hard," Ellis said. "I think we deserved better, but give the other team credit. They played well and well enough to win."
Gourde added an empty-net goal at 19:14 of the third period for the 3-0 final.
"In the first period, I'd say that we weren't really skating much," Gourde said. "We were maybe forcing plays a little bit. We were too far from each other, so we had a hard time breaking the puck out. After that we kind of came back to a little bit more of our identity, playing north and playing fast."
NOTES:Predators forward Michael McCarron was assessed a match penalty at 19:37 of the third for an elbow he delivered to the head of Gourde. … Cooper said Stamkos is doubtful for Tuesday's game against the Predators and he hopes to have more information when they return home from their road trip. ... Colton has scored seven goals this season, including five in the past six games.