Predators vs. Lightning: Steven Stamkos Haunts His Old Team With a Tying Goal and the Shootout Winner

Steven Stamkos spent Halloween afternoon haunting the franchise he used to captain. First he chased down his own rebound on a third-period power play to tie the game. Then, in the fourth round of a shootout nobody else could crack, he slid a backhand past old teammate Andrei Vasilevskiy and sent Bridgestone Arena into a full sugar rush.

That was the only shootout goal of the day, and it handed the Nashville Predators a 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. Nashville trailed three separate times and erased every deficit, like a trick-or-treater who keeps circling back to the same porch for another handful.

It also lifted a very specific curse. Before Saturday, the Predators had lost all five of their games that went beyond regulation this season. On the sixth try they finally banked the extra point, and they got it from the former captain of the team in the other locker room.

Three Leads, Three Answers

Reid Schaefer opened the scoring at 11:14 of the first, keeping the puck himself on a 2-on-1 with Jonathan Marchessault and beating Vasilevskiy to the far side. It was his first goal of the season. "It's a sigh of relief," Schaefer said on the Predators' website after spending time as a scratch.

Tampa answered at 13:38 when John Carlson's shot from the right side caromed off Adam Edstrom's stick and past Justus Annunen. Then the second period turned into a pinball machine. Jake Guentzel tipped one home just 18 seconds after the opening faceoff for a 2-1 Lightning lead, and Edstrom needed only 27 more seconds to make it 2-2 with a snap shot, his fifth of the season.

Victor Hedman restored the Tampa lead at 3:23 of the middle frame, and for a while it felt like the Lightning's top-end skill would eventually win the war. Instead, Jayden Struble beat Vasilevskiy with 18 seconds left in the period for a 3-3 tie, his second goal of the season, timed perfectly to wreck the visitors' intermission mood.

"It speaks volumes that we're able to come back multiple times in a game like that," Edstrom said, per the team's site.

Conor Geekie put Tampa ahead for a third time at 3:31 of the third, finishing a feed from Jeffrey Viel. Nashville, naturally, had one more answer in the bag.

Stammer Gets the Last Word

Stamkos finished with a regulation goal, the shootout winner and a milestone. His power-play strike was the 246th of his career, which tied Phil Esposito for sixth in NHL history. It was also his eighth goal of the season.

The best part came before his shootout attempt. Head coach Andrew Brunette said he quietly checked in with his veteran, knowing Stamkos had history with the goalie at the other end. "I said, 'Do you want it?' He goes, 'Yeah, I got it.' That tells you all you need to know about him," Brunette said. That is main character energy, delivered in about four words.

Filip Forsberg set up both Struble's equalizer and Stamkos's power-play goal, and the Predators noted it was his fourth straight game with multiple points. Nick Perbix also had two assists.

On the Tampa side, Nikita Kucherov did everything except pick the winner. He set up the Carlson, Guentzel and Hedman goals for three assists in 23:41, and he now has assists in three straight games. The AP noted the performance came one day after he reportedly asked to be traded. Whatever is happening behind the scenes, his passing was not the problem on Saturday.

Carlson finished with a goal and an assist, and Guentzel logged 25:56, the most ice time of any Tampa forward.

The Goalie Duel Nobody Saw Coming

Neither goalie will frame this box score. Annunen made 22 saves on 26 shots through regulation and overtime for an .846 save percentage, and Vasilevskiy stopped 29 of 33 for an .879 mark. Then the shootout started and both of them turned into brick walls.

Vasilevskiy stopped Forsberg and Marchessault, and Ryan O'Reilly missed wide. Annunen was even better in what the Predators said was his first career shootout, turning away Brayden Point, Guentzel and Gage Goncalves while Pontus Holmberg missed the net entirely. Stamkos could not resist a little ribbing afterward. "It just took what, [Annunen] 83 starts to get into a shootout?" he said with a laugh.

The Turning Point: Special Teams

The swing that flipped this game was Nashville's third-period power play. Each team got three chances with the man advantage. Tampa went 0-for-3. Nashville went 1-for-3, and that one conversion, at 7:27 of the third with Forsberg and O'Reilly on the assists, turned a regulation loss into a point and then two.

Stamkos made the same case. "We got a big power-play goal at the end, a huge kill at the end of the game, all game, really," he said.

Stats That Matter

• 246: Stamkos's career power-play goals, now tied with Phil Esposito for sixth all time.
• 0-for-3: Tampa's power play, against Nashville's 1-for-3. That one extra goal forced overtime.
• 33-26: Nashville's edge in shots, while the Lightning blocked 24 shots to keep it close.
• 3: Kucherov's assists, stretching his assist streak to three games.
• 3: Game-tying goals for Nashville, its first such game since a 4-3 win at Utah on Dec. 29, 2025, according to the Predators.

What It Means

Nashville moves to 5-4-5 with 15 points and snaps a two-game skid that included a shootout loss to the Islanders and a regulation loss to Washington. The Predators have been piling up loser points all month, so actually cashing one in matters. "It's been tough this year with the shootouts and overtime, not getting that extra point," Stamkos said. "We're fighting for our lives here and in the mix of things early on in the season," he added. Nashville closes its five-game homestand Tuesday against Carolina.

Tampa Bay falls to 8-3-2 with 18 points and has dropped three of its last four, all of them away from home. The Lightning are 6-0-0 at home and 2-3-2 on the road, and they get to regroup on familiar ice Tuesday against Detroit.

Trick or Treat, Smashville

Brunette put it best. "I mean, we had 20 drivers. Everybody took their turn at the wheel and floored it," he said. For a Predators team that had spent October getting tricked in every overtime and shootout, Stamkos finally handed out the full-size candy bar, and he did it against the team he once captained.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes as reported by the Nashville Predators on nhl.com.