Colton Sissons ended a 12-game goal drought with his first career hat trick, Pekka Rinne made 27 saves and the Nashville Predators beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-1 on Thursday night.
Tampa Bay pulled its goalie for an extra skater with seven minutes left in the third, and Sissons got his second of the game a minute later before completing the trick from close with three minutes remaining. He entered with two goals this season and seven overall in 78 career games.
Nashville also got goals from Mike Fisher, Filip Forsberg and Ryan Ellis. Rinne improved to 7-0-1 against Tampa Bay.
Tyler Johnson scored for the Lightning, who went 2-2-1 on a five-game homestand. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 13 shots.
Fisher had the lone goal in the first, coming on the power play at 2:25. The Predators are 11-0-4 when scoring first. Tampa Bay has allowed the first goal in 26 of 40 games (7-15-4).
Forsberg made it 2-0 before Johnson scored on the power play early in the second, and then Sissons made it 3-1 from the right circle at 13:21.
Ellis made it a 4-1 lead 43 seconds after Sissons scored with a goal that had two reviews.
The original call was no goal because of goalie interference on Viktor Arvidsson, but that was overturned after a Nashville challenge. Tampa Bay then challenged the on-ice call that play was onside, but the review was inconclusive and the goal stood.
The Predators have outscored opponents 50-27 in the second period. The first four Nashville goals came on just eight shots.
NOTES: Nashville LW James Neal sat out with an upper-body injury. ... Forsberg has six goals in his last eight games. ... Tampa Bay G Ben Bishop (lower-body injury) is taking shots at practice and could return in mid-January. ... Predators D Anthony Bitetto played after missing 15 games due to an upper-body injury and had an assist.
UP NEXT:
Predators: Wrap a three-game trip with contests Friday night at Florida and Sunday night in Chicago.
Lightning: Play at Philadelphia on Saturday and Pittsburgh on Sunday during a two-game trip.