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Pekka Rinne Shines in Return as Predators Beat Lightning
TAMPA, Fla. — Pekka Rinne made 42 saves in his return after missing five games with an injury, and the Nashville Predators beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Thursday night.
Rinne was hurt in the third period of a 5-3 win at Calgary on Oct. 19. He was stretching to try and stop the puck when teammate Kevin Fiala landed on top of the goalie in an awkward-looking collision.
Kyle Turris, Roman Josi, Calle Jarnkrok and Miikka Salomaki scored, and Ryan Johansen had two nifty assists for the Predators. Right wing Viktor Arvidsson, who has eight goals and 12 points, was a late scratch due to a lower-body injury and is day to day.
The Predators reached 10 wins in 13 games, the fastest in franchise history. The previous mark was 15 games, done three times.
Tampa Bay got a goal from Slater Koekkoek, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20 shots. Nashville is the only opponent Vasilevskiy (0-3-1) has never beaten.
Rinne made an outstanding save four minutes into the game when he lifted his right pad while lunging to the right and stopped Brayden Point's rebound shot.
Turris opened the scoring at 6:02 of the first before Josi made it 2-0 with 6.4 seconds left in the period off a backhand pass through the crease by Johansen.
Koekkoek snapped a 16-game goal drought and cut the deficit to 2-1 from the left circle at 14:21 of the second.
Johansen had another backhand pass to set up Jarnkrok's goal with 3:18 to play.
Salomaki added an empty-netter.
Nashville has earned a point in 13 of its last 14 games (11-1-2) against the Lightning.
NOTES: Tampa Bay D Victor Hedman (shoulder) sat out his third straight game and could miss games at Montreal and Ottawa this weekend. LW Ondrej Palat (foot) also was sidelined for the third consecutive game. . Nashville LW Zac Rinaldo (lower body) didn't play. . Predators coach Peter Laviolette coached his 1,100th NHL game.