Luke Evangelista and Filip Forsberg scored in the third period, but the Nashville Predators fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning by a 5-2 final on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result sees the Preds finish their season-long, five-game homestand with a 2-3-0 record and a pair of losses to conclude the stint.
The Preds had a push in the final frame in an attempt to even the score, but a second period that saw the Bolts outshoot Nashville by a 13-3 count contributed to an outing that simply didn’t go the home team’s way.
“We put ourselves in kind of a tough spot when we play that way in the first and second, and it was a great push in the third,” Evangelista said. “We were a lot more connected, and the forecheck was going, they were turning pucks over; it resulted in a lot more o-zone time and a good push. We’ve got to play like that for a full 60 [minutes]. We put ourselves in a bad spot when we're not bringing it in the first and second and we're trying to claw back from behind.”
“We had a little bit of pushback there in the third, but our second wasn't good enough,” Preds forward Michael Bunting said. “It wasn't a good game by us, but we did have some pushback. We just have to move forward from this one and learn from it and what makes us successful.”
The Lightning had a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play courtesy of a goal from Zemgus Girgensons, and moments after Saros made a number of saves in tight, Tampa Bay knocked home its second tally of the night in the middle frame.
Evangelista gave the Preds life early in the third when he capitalized on a rebound in front and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy on the power play, but the Lightning countered less than three minutes later.
Then, with just over two minutes to play, Forsberg brought the Preds back to within one with an extra attacker, but Tampa Bay added two more before the night was out to leave Nashville disappointed in the final outcome.
“We need to get the offense going here a little bit more, maybe deliver more pucks to the net when we have guys there, and kind of cause havoc,” Preds forward Michael Bunting said. “I feel like goals are scored in front of the net, and things are getting blocked. We're not getting it there, and then it's easy for them to break it out when it gets blocked and stuff like that. We’ve just got to sustain a little bit more offense and create a little bit more and make some more plays. Obviously, eight games [out of 11 with two or less goals], it's not good enough, and we’ve got to do a little bit better.”
“Obviously, [we’d] like to score more goals, but there's some things that we didn't do tonight to give us a chance to score goals, and that's a big thing for our group,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “We have to clean it up and be a little bit better.”
Notes:
Preds defenseman Adam Wilsby left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury and did not return. There was no further update on his status following the game.
Fedor Svechkov and Nick Blankenburg were scratched for Nashville on Tuesday. Preds Captain Roman Josi remains week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
With their homestand complete, the Predators will head to Philadelphia to face the Flyers on Thursday evening before returning to Nashville to host Calgary on Saturday afternoon as broadcasters Pete Weber and Terry Crisp are inducted into the Preds Golden Hall.
