Lightning at Predators
The Nashville Predators look to continue their mastery in the series when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night in a battle of the top two teams in the NHL. The Predators are 8-0-2 in the last 10 meetings with the Lightning after earning a 4-1 win on Nov. 1 as goalie Pekka Rinne improved to 8-0-1 against Tampa Bay with 42 saves in his first game back from injury.
Nashville has been up and down since that victory, but snapped a three-game slide (0-2-1) with a 5-3 victory over Los Angeles on Saturday as forward Calle Jarnkrok recorded a hat trick. “I’ve got to give our guys in the room a lot of credit because we fell behind a few times and just stayed persistent and stayed consistent with our game and didn’t stop, and by the end we were able to catch up and then take the lead,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette told reporters after the win. The Lightning took an alternate route to victory Saturday while taking a four-goal lead, coughing it up and getting an overtime goal from Anthony Cirelli for a 6-5 win at Philadelphia to improve to 2-1-0 on their four-game trip. “I think we kind of stopped skating a little bit,” Cirelli told reporters. “They were kind of pouring it on, playing fast, having their (defensemen) jump. … At the end of the day, we’ve just got to be better and compete for a full 60.”
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS Sun (Tampa Bay), FS Tennessee (Nashville)
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (14-5-1): The “fourth” line of Adam Erne, Cedric Paquette and Ryan Callahan combined to register two goals and three assists in Saturday’s victory - a game in which Tampa Bay was outshot 45-26. “I thought that line really was the catalyst for why we had the lead,” coach Jon Cooper told reporters. “I know the power play got a couple there but they were the line that really I thought got us going. It was great to see they were getting on the scoresheet.” Center Brayden Point has five of his team-leading 14 goals in the last two games and right wing Nikita Kucherov owns five of his team-best 16 assists in the same span.
ABOUT THE PREDATORS (14-5-1): Jarnkrok doubled his goal total in Saturday’s win and became the second player in franchise history to record a power play, shorthanded and even-strength goal in the same game, joining Scott Walker (2000). “He’s an important player in here, whether it’s offensively or defensively,” Nashville defenseman Ryan Ellis told reporters of Jarnkrok. “You put him out on the power play and he showed what he can do. He got us going when we needed it, and we got some big goals from him.” Linemates Filip Forsberg and Ryan Johansen lead the team with 18 points apiece, but have none in the last two games.
OVERTIME
1. The Lightning have given up seven power-play goals in 14 attempts the last four games and scored seven in the same stretch.
2. Nashville C Nick Bonino has scored in back-to-back contests after coming up empty in the first 18 games of the season.
3. Tampa Bay LW Alex Killorn is riding a career-high five-game assist streak with six total in that span.