NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Zemgus Girgensons scored two goals to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
Brandon Hagel, Nikita Kucherov and Charl-Edouard D’Astous also scored for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 18 saves. After winning just one of their first seven games of the season, the Lightning have won three straight.
Anthony Cirelli and Pontus Holmberg each had two assists for the Lightning.
Luke Evangelista scored a goal and added an assist and Filip Forsberg also scored, and Juuse Saros made 25 saves for Nashville, losers of two in a row.
Girgensons scored the game’s first goal at 10:31 of the opening period. He missed the first seven games of the season with an upper-body injury. He later added his second late in the third.
Hagel doubled the Tampa Bay lead at 15:37 of the second.
Just eight seconds after a Lightning power play expired, Hagel was corralled a loose puck after a scramble in front of the Nashville net and slipped it past Saros.
Cirelli assisted on Hagel’s goal, for his 300th career NHL point.
Hagel has two goals and four assists in his last three games.
Evangelista scored a power-play goal at 5:05 of the third.
After missing all of training camp, Evangelista signed a two-year, $6 million contract on Oct. 4.
D’Astous, playing in his third career game, scored his first NHL goal at 7:58 of the third.
Forsberg cut the Lightning lead to one at 17:54 of the third with Saros pulled for an extra attacker, but Kucherov’s empty-net goal restored Tampa Bay’s two-goal lead.
Nashville killed all four Lightning power plays in the game. They have allowed just one opponent power-play goal at home in 27 times short-handed this season.
Up next
Lightning host Dallas on Thursday night.
Predators visit Philadelphia on Thursday night.
By JIM DIAMOND
The Associated Press
