National Hockey League: Tampa Bay Lightning defeats Nashville Predators 5-3

Tampa, Florida. – Jonas Johansson made 29 saves, Nicholas Paul scored twice in the third period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Nashville Predators 5-3 on Tuesday in their first game of the season.

Johansson joined the team to support Andrei Vasilevskiy. However, the star goalkeeper underwent back surgery two weeks ago and is expected to miss action for six to eight weeks.

Brandon Hagel struck from the penalty spot and Nikita Kucherov also scored twice for the local favorites. Brayden Point had three assists.

Predators goaltender Jose Saros stopped 29 shots. Ryan O’Reilly, Juusu Parsinen and Tommy Novak scored in Andrew Brunette’s first game as Tennessee’s head coach.

Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, who is entering the final year of his eight-year, $68 million contract, had an assist. Lightning general manager Julien Brisebois has indicated that his team, which is adept at managing the salary cap, will not begin negotiations until after the season.

Novak threaded the needle with an extra man at 8:48 of the third period before Paul made it 4-3 2:04 later. Kucherov completed the score in an empty cage.

Parsinen flashed the red light just 11 seconds into the third period before the Lightning scored twice in 42 seconds. Paul and Hagel gave the Lightning a 3-2 lead at the 3:07 mark.

Kucherov scored the only goal in the first half, in which the Lightning dominated 11-2 in shots on goal.

The second half belonged to the Predators, who led 14-5 in shots. O’Reilly took advantage to tie the game.

Predators center Cody Glass took a helmet shot off teammate Tyson Barrie with six minutes left in the second. However, he returned to the game in the third period.

Famed coach Scotty Bowman watched the game from the press box. The 90-year-old saw his first game in 1937, when his father took him to watch a duel between the Maroons and the Montreal Canadiens.