Carrier Scores First NHL Goal, but Preds Fall to Lightning

Alexandre Carrier's first NHL goal was part of a third-period push from the Predators, but Nashville ultimately fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning by a 6-3 final on Saturday night at AMALIE Arena. The result keeps the Preds winless in five tries this season against the Bolts as Nashville moves to 1-2-1 halfway through their eight-game road trip.
Yakov Trenin and Erik Haula also tallied for the Predators on the evening, and Pekka Rinne made 23 saves in net to give the Preds a chance for most of the night.

"Overall, we played a pretty good game," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "There were some mistakes early…and they kind of carried a little bit of momentum, but I thought we really fought our way back into the game. Unfortunately, [it becomes a] one-goal game, and now we're coming back in and we have a mental error coming in the D-zone coverage, and [it's just some] little things. I really like the effort, I like the intensity, I like the pushback that we had - I think there's lots of positives to take out of the game. We just have to clean up some of these mistakes at key times."

"There's some good things, and there's some things that we can do better," Haula said. "And we're playing against one of the best teams in the League, and I feel like the little things really matter tonight. They're definitely a team that can put the puck in the net, but overall, I feel like our guys are battling hard."
Tampa Bay had a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes with goals from Tyler Johnson and Mathieu Joseph. Alex Killorn beat Rinne on the power play to give the Lightning a three-goal advantage early in the second, but Trenin gave the Predators life when he snapped a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy for his second goal of the season midway through the frame.

Before the second period was out, Brayden Point got the three-goal lead back for the home team, but just as they have so many times this season, the Preds made things interesting in the third. Carrier's first-career goal and point came roughly three minutes into the period when he roofed a shot under the crossbar, and Haula struck on the power play fewer than two minutes after that to bring the Predators to within one.

But midway through the final frame, Blake Coleman restored a two-goal lead once more for the Lightning before they added one more into an empty Nashville net to end the evening.
The Predators dressed six rookies in their lineup once more on Saturday night, and two of them found the back of the net. Those contributions have been welcome, and they're helping to keep the Preds in games as of late.

"We expect to win games, and I thought we've given ourselves a chance in every game [of the trip]," Hynes said. "In tonight's game, some of our veteran players need to be better. The young guys came in, and they're all good players - that's why they're in the organization - and you're going to go through situations where you have injuries and you have young guys called up. I really liked the way those kids have played. I think they've been very competitive, and I think they've gotten better as time has gone on.
"But when you're in these situations, you need some of your top players to really carry the load. So, we expect a better effort from those particular guys coming into the next game. And I think that it's a good experience for the young guys to be able to come into situations where they're forced to play in key situations. To their credit, they've given us an opportunity to be a really competitive team, but as I said, when those guys come in and they step in, you need your veteran core players to really carry the load."
The Predators will have another shot at the Lightning on Monday afternoon, and while they'll look to limit their mistakes against Tampa Bay's high-powered offense, Nashville will be expecting more of the same sticktoitiveness they showed in Saturday's outing.
"Everyone's working hard, and the problem isn't the work ethic," Carrier said. "We have new guys in the lineup, we're younger, especially on defense, so I think if everyone chips in; everyone's trying to do the right thing here. Obviously, it doesn't go our way, but I'm sure in the next the next few games, and the road trip, we'll get everything together and get those bounces and get some wins."

Notes:
Predators defenseman Frederic Allard made his NHL debut on Saturday night in Tampa Bay and recorded one blocked shot in 16:59 of ice time.
"That was awesome," Carrier said of seeing Allard play in the NHL. "He's one of my best buddies. We were together for a few seasons in Milwaukee, we're really close, so I was really excited for him. I was really excited for him and to be there, to play on the same lineup with him for his first game. He played well as well, so I'm really happy for him."
Allard, as well as Carrier and Ben Harpur were recalled from the taxi squad prior to Saturday's game. The help on the blue line was needed as defenseman Mark Borowiecki missed Saturday's contest and is week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
Nashville's two-game set against the Lightning concludes on Monday afternoon in Tampa Bay with a special 3 p.m. CT puck drop. The Preds will then head across the state of Florida to face the Panthers twice later in the week.