National Hockey League
Tampa Bay 6, Nashville 3
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, March 13, 2021
Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida
Referees: Gord Dwyer, T.J. Luxmore
Linesmen: Shandor Alphonso, Andrew Smith
Attendance: 3800

Tampa Bay's Blake Coleman and Tyler Johnson each notched a goal and an assist in the host Lightning's 6-3 win over the injury-riddled Nashville Predators on Saturday night.

In moving to 10-1-0 on home ice, the Lightning got markers from Mathieu Joseph, Alex Killorn, Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli. Erik Cernak and Ondrej Palat each produced two assists.

In his eighth straight win, Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 of 31 shots to record his NHL-leading 17th win and go to 17-3-1.

The victory improved Tampa Bay's record to 5-0-0 against Nashville this season and 9-1-1 overall in its last 11 games.

Yakov Trenin collected a goal and assist -- dishing out the helper on Alexandre Carrier's first career tally -- and Erik Haula scored on the power play for Nashville, which slipped to 1-5-1 in March and 1-2-1 on its seven-game road trip.

Pekka Rinne (6-11-1) worked his seventh straight game in goal and allowed five goals on 27 shots.

Defenseman Dante Fabbro missed his second of a two-game suspension for elbowing. The blue line was additionally weakened by playing without starters Ryan Ellis, Mark Borowiecki and captain Roman Josi.

The Predators skated with three rookies on the blue line, including 23-year-old Frederic Allard. In his NHL debut, Allard registered 16:59 of ice time.

Before the puck drop in front of a small group of fans, the Lightning raised their 2019-20 Stanley Cup championship banner to the Amalie Arena rafters, celebrating their second title that they won in September over the Dallas Stars in six games.

Johnson made a great individual effort pay off while tangled up with Nashville defenseman Ben Harpur and sliding near Rinne in the opening period. Johnson tapped in Cernak's pass on an odd-man rush at 6:55 for his sixth goal.

Tampa Bay moved ahead 2-0 at 18:35 when Joseph's long shot hit the stick of Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm and beat Rinne -- Joseph's sixth goal overall and third against Nashville this season.

In the second period, Killorn notched his seventh goal at 2:24 on the power play -- the club's fifth straight game scoring on the man advantage -- and Point scored late in the frame, but Trenin put the visitors on the board between the Tampa Bay tallies with a wrister off a pass from Viktor Arvidsson.

After Carrier scored at 3:17 of the third, Haula's goal at 5:03 trimmed the score to 4-3, but Coleman converted at 10:02 to regain the two-goal edge. Cirelli scored into an empty net at 18:26 to seal it.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Nashville   Tampa Bay
Yakov Trenin 2 Points Blake Coleman 2
Yakov Trenin 1 Goals Blake Coleman 1
Yakov Trenin 1 Assists Erik Cernak 2
Erik Haula 1 Power Play Goals Alex Killorn 1
N/A Short Handed Goals N/A
Pekka Rinne .815 Save Percentage Andrei Vasilevskiy .903
Pekka Rinne 22 Saves Andrei Vasilevskiy 28
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
Nashville 31 3 1-2 0-1 2 25
Tampa Bay 28 6 1-1 1-2 4 25
Upcoming Games
  • Tampa Bay will play their next game at home against Nashville. The Lightning have a W/L % of .722 after a win and .714 after a loss.
  • Nashville will play their next game on the road against Tampa Bay. The Predators have a W/L % of .364 after a win and .375 after a loss.