Nikita Kucherov meets with media following 3-1 win vs Pittsburgh The Lightning completed the second half of their back-to-back with a 5-1 loss to the Predators in Nashville on Thursday night. Alex Barre-Boulet opened the scoring 13:32 into the first period giving the Bolts a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately they were held scoreless through the remainder of regulation, ultimately giving up five unanswered goals to Nashville. Special teams and goaltending were the story for the Predators. The Lightning attempted to start chipping away at the Preds, but they were unsuccessful. There were opportunities to tilt the ice in their favor after three consecutive power plays, but they weren’t able to convert anything. The Lightning have been able to rely on special teams for most of the year but that just wasn’t the case in Nashville. They accumulated several good looks on the power play specifically, but Juuse Saros stopped all of them. Lightning coach Jon Cooper pulled Jonas Johansson with a little more than eight minutes left and Yakov Trenin snagged an empty-net goal. “We’re playing a decent road game, and then they get two quick ones in the second and once that happened, we didn’t punch back,” Cooper said. “That’s probably the most disappointing thing about the game.” The Bolts will head west to face Seattle for the second time this season on Saturday.
