Zemgus Girgensons scores twice as Lightning down Predators 5-2

NASHVILLE Tenn AP Zemgus Girgensons scored two goals to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a - preeminence 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 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 saves for Nashville losers of two in a row Girgensons scored the event s first goal at 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 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 th career NHL point Hagel has two goals and four assists in his last three games Evangelista scored a power-play goal at of the third After missing all of training camp Evangelista signed a two-year million contract on Oct D Astous playing in his third career meeting scored his first NHL goal at of the third Forsberg cut the Lightning lead to one at 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 event They have allowed just one opponent power-play goal at home in times short-handed this season Up next Lightning host Dallas on Thursday night Predators visit Philadelphia on Thursday night Source