Raw Charge
Summary
There was a time when a third-period, game-tying goal from Steven Stamkos would have brought much joy to Tampa Bay Lightning fans. On Saturday, it only brought heartbreak as the former Lightning captain, now clad in the mustard yellow uniform of the Nashville Predators scored his first career goal against his former team late in the third period to tie the game at four goals a piece. Then, to twist the knife a little more, Stamkos had the lone goal in the shootout to give Nashville their first shootout win of the season, 5-4. Fresh off the news that he would not sign an extension with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Nikita Kucherov showed no sign of distraction as he assisted on the Lightning’s first three goals, two of which gave the road team leads that they would eventually concede. In fact, Tampa Bay would have a total of three one-goal leads evaporate, continuing a three-game trend where it seems no positive margin is safe. They had a 4-2 lead against Utah in the second period that disappeared in an overtime loss. They followed that up with a four-goal lead against Winnipeg that was whittled down to just one late in the third period, and today they had a 4-3 lead compliments of Conor Geekie’s fourth goal of the season that was erased by Stamkos’ power play goal at the 7:27 mark of the final frame. There were strikes and counterstrikes throughout the matinee affair. Reid Schaefer opened the scoring for Nashville midway through the first period with his first goal of the season, but the Lightning equalized two minutes later as John Carlson’s shot-pass to a crashing Charle-Edouard D’Astous was tipped past Justus Annunen by Adam Edstom’s stick. The goal-scoring sequence was reversed early in the second period as Carlson put a shot on net that Jake Guentzel deflected into the back of the net just 18 seconds into the frame. Unfortunately for the Lightning, not even an entire minute would tick off the clock before Edstrom chipped one inside the far post on a two-on-one rush, A couple of future hall-of-famers hooked up a couple of minutes later when Nikita Kucherov received a pass from Brayden Point and immediately sent it back to Victor Hedman, who was crashing through the slot. The captain buried it for his third goal of the season. From there, the play swung heavily in Nashville’s favor as the Bolts struggled to clear the puck at times, and chance after chance came the home team’s way. It was only a matter of time until they cashed in, and it came with just 18 seconds left to tick away. Ryan McDonagh’s clearing attempt was knocked down and Nashville worked the puck around to Jayden Struble who snuck a wrist shot under Vasilevskiy’s blocker on the short side to level the score. Offense from an unlikely line gave the Lightning their third lead of the night as Scott Sabourin, in just his second game of the season, forced Nashville to shove a pass back behind their own net. Jeff Viel was there to steal it and feed a quick pass to Conor Geekie who snapped it past Annunen for his fourth goal of the season. The game-leveling goal from Stamkos would come four minutes later as Filip Forsberg found him on a cross-ice pass. Vasilevskiy stopped his former teammate’s initial shot with a sprawling blocker save, but the puck came right back to Stamkos who wouldn’t miss a second time. Vasilevskiy finished the night with 29 saves, including several in the third period as the home team controlled much of the play late. Overtime wouldn’t decide it as Annunen’s 22nd save of the day may have been his best as he denied J.J. Moser’s backhand from the slot with his glove. In the shootout Forsberg was stopped by Vasilevskiy while Pontus Holmberg and Ryan O’Reilly missed the net on their attempts. Annunen turned aside Brayden Point’s usual direct attempt at the net while Vasilevskiy was able to thwart Jonathan Marchessault. Jake Guentzel couldn’t beat the Nashville goaltender which set up Stamkos’ backhand winner. Highlights #NHL Game Score Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2026-10-31:#GoBolts — HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) 2026-10-31T20:51:04.464Z