Steven Stamkos Beats His Old Team Twice as Predators Edge Lightning 5-4 in Shootout

Steven Stamkos spent 16 seasons building records for the Tampa Bay Lightning. On Saturday in Nashville he took a game away from them twice. The former Lightning captain tied the score on a third-period power play and then scored the only goal of the shootout, lifting the Nashville Predators to a 5-4 win over Tampa Bay at Bridgestone Arena.

The loss dropped the Lightning to 8-3-2 on the season, still good for 18 points, while the Predators improved to 5-4-5. It was Tampa Bay's third loss in four games, though the shootout result earned the Lightning a point in the standings.

The afternoon also came one day after the Lightning's season took a sharp turn off the ice. On Friday, Nikita Kucherov told the club he would not re-sign and asked for a trade, as The Florida Press reported. Kucherov dressed against Nashville and was one of Tampa Bay's best players, finishing with three assists in 23 minutes, 41 seconds of ice time.

Stamkos ties it on the power play

The Lightning led three separate times and never by more than one goal. Their last lead came at 3:31 of the third period, when Conor Geekie beat Justus Annunen with a wrist shot, assisted by Jeff Viel, to make it 4-3.

Nashville answered at 7:27. With the Predators on the power play, Stamkos ripped a wrist shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy for his eighth goal of the season, set up by Filip Forsberg and Ryan O'Reilly. According to The Associated Press, it was the 246th power-play goal of Stamkos' career, tying him with Phil Esposito for sixth in NHL history.

That goal was the only power-play conversion of the game. Nashville finished 1-for-3 with the man advantage, while Tampa Bay went 0-for-3. Neither team scored in the rest of regulation or in the five-minute overtime.

The shootout

Vasilevskiy and Annunen traded saves through the early rounds. Vasilevskiy stopped Forsberg to open the shootout, Pontus Holmberg missed wide for the Lightning, and O'Reilly also missed. Annunen then turned aside Brayden Point, and Vasilevskiy stopped Jonathan Marchessault.

Annunen made another save on Jake Guentzel before Stamkos skated in and beat Vasilevskiy with a backhand. Gage Goncalves needed to score to extend the shootout for Tampa Bay, but Annunen made the save to end it.

The result mattered for the Predators beyond the extra point. According to the AP, Nashville had lost each of its first five games that went past regulation this season, and it had lost two straight overall coming into Saturday.

A back-and-forth first 40 minutes

Reid Schaefer opened the scoring at 11:14 of the first period with his first goal of the season. He came down the right side on a two-on-one with Marchessault and fired a wrist shot that beat Vasilevskiy to the far side. Alexander Kerfoot and Nick Perbix assisted.

John Carlson tied it at 13:38 of the first. His shot from the right side deflected off the stick of Nashville's Adam Edstrom and past Annunen. Kucherov and Charle-Edouard D'Astous drew the assists.

The second period opened with three goals in a little over three minutes. Guentzel tipped in a shot 18 seconds after the opening faceoff to put Tampa Bay up 2-1, with Carlson and Kucherov assisting. Edstrom answered 27 seconds later at 0:45, and Victor Hedman restored the Lightning lead at 3:23 with a wrist shot set up by Kucherov and Point.

Tampa Bay carried that 3-2 lead nearly to the second intermission. Jayden Struble tied it with 18 seconds left in the period, beating Vasilevskiy at 19:42 with assists from Adam Wilsby and Forsberg.

Here is how the scoring unfolded.

Kucherov keeps producing amid the trade request

Kucherov's three assists ran his streak of games with an assist to three, according to the AP, and pushed his assist total to 14 on the season. He was on the ice for the Lightning's first three goals and finished plus-3.

His week has been as eventful as any in his Tampa Bay career. On Oct. 24 against the Utah Mammoth, Kucherov passed Stamkos as the franchise's all-time points leader, a mark Stamkos had held when he left for Nashville as a free agent in 2024. Six days later came the trade request. The Lightning have said they have no intention of dealing him, and Saturday offered no sign that the situation has affected his play.

The two biggest scorers in Lightning history ended up on opposite sides of the same shootout. Kucherov did not shoot in the tiebreaker; Stamkos was the only player on either side to score in it.

The numbers

Nashville outshot Tampa Bay 33-26. Vasilevskiy made 29 saves on 33 shots through regulation and overtime, and Annunen stopped 22 of 26, according to ESPN's box score. The Lightning blocked 24 shots to Nashville's 15, and the Predators won 53.1% of the faceoffs.

Carlson finished with a goal and an assist, and Point added an assist to go with four blocked shots. D'Astous led all Lightning skaters in ice time at 25:25. For Nashville, Forsberg and Perbix each had two assists, and captain Roman Josi played 27:33.

The Lightning played without defenseman Erik Cernak and forwards Zemgus Girgensons and Yanni Gourde, all listed on ESPN's injury report. The announced crowd was 17,180.

What's next

The Lightning return home to host the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night, Election Day in Florida, at Benchmark International Arena. Nashville hosts the Carolina Hurricanes the same night.

Saturday was the first of two meetings between Tampa Bay and Nashville this season. The rematch is scheduled for Dec. 29 in Tampa, when Stamkos makes another trip back to the arena where he spent most of his career, and when the Lightning may have a clearer answer about Kucherov's future.