TAMPA, Fla. — Jonas Johansson made 28 saves in his first begin instead of the injured Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nicholas Paul had two third-period power-play targets and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Nashville Predators 5-3 within the NHL regular-season opener on Tuesday night time.

Johansson was signed to be Vasilevskiy’s backup. Vasilevskiy had again surgical procedure two weeks in the past and is predicted to overlook one other six to eight weeks.

“His game was quiet,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper mentioned. “He made himself big. He wasn’t erratic. He just plays positional goal. When the heat got turned up, his heart rate didn’t go up. You’d have to say he passed the test.”

Brandon Hagel transformed a penalty shot, and Nikita Kucherov additionally scored twice for the Lightning. Brayden Point had three assists.

The Lightning are 20-9-2 in season openers, which is the NHL’s highest profitable share (minimal 10 video games performed).

Nashville’s Juuse Saros stopped 29 photographs. Ryan O’Reilly, Juuso Parssinen and Tommy Novak had targets in Andrew Brunette’s debut as Predators coach.

PHOTOS: Johansson wins in debut, Paul has 2 power-play targets and Lightning beat Predators 5-3

“I felt good about our game,” Brunette mentioned. “Just against this team, we talked about it coming in, you can’t get into penalty trouble. Their power play is elite. I’ve seen this record play too many times in this building”

Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, coming into the ultimate season of a $68 million, eight-year contract, had an help. Tampa Bay common supervisor Julien BriseBois has mentioned the salary-cap challenged workforce gained’t start talks on a brand new deal till after the season.

Novak had a power-play purpose at 8:48 earlier than Paul made it 4-3 on a man-advantage purpose 2:04 later. Kucherov added an empty-netter.

Parssinen scored 11 seconds into the third interval earlier than targets 42-seconds aside by Paul, on the ability play, and Hagel put the Lightning up 3-2 at 3:07.

Kucherov scored the lone first-period purpose as Tampa Bay had a 13-2 shot benefit.

“Not the start we wanted,” O’Reilly mentioned. “We have to be more consistent with that, but we battled back.”

O’Reilly tied it at 1 throughout the second interval as Nashville outshot the Lightning 14-5.

“I think the second got away from us.” Point mentioned. “But happy with how we responded in the third.”

Nashville middle Cody Glass took some extent shot by teammate Tyson Barrie off the helmet with 6 minutes left within the second however returned within the third interval.

Lightning ahead Tyler Motte sat out the third with an undisclosed damage.

DICKIE V AT THE RINK

College basketball icon Dick Vitale was amongst a gaggle of Tampa Bay space sports legends participating in a ceremonial puck drop.

Vitale, on social media Tuesday, mentioned he can have two scopes throughout the subsequent 5 days to find out if his 35 radiation remedies “wiped out” his vocal wire most cancers.

ALSO SEEN

Hall of Famers becoming a member of Vitale on the ice have been the NHL’s Phil Esposito and Dave Andreychuk, the NFL’s Derrick Brooks and Ronde Barber, and MLB’s Wade Boggs and Fred McGriff.

Nine-time Stanley Cup-winning coach Scotty Bowman watched from the press field. The 90-year-old Bowman noticed his first NHL sport in 1937 when his father, a Montreal Maroons fan, took him to see a sport in opposition to the Canadiens.

UP NEXT

Predators: Host Seattle on Thursday night time

Lightning: Play at Detroit on Saturday night time.

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