Prospect Showcase Game One Recap

After finishing the 2022 Prospect Showcase with an 0-3 record, the Tampa Bay Lightning kicked off the 2023 Southeast Rookie Showcase with a 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators Friday afternoon at Hertz Arena.

“Just win,” said Bolts forward Waltteri Merela after the game. “I heard that guys were talking about how last year wasn't so good. I think they lost all the games, so this was a good start for us.

“There are two more games to win. I think that's the goal. It doesn't really matter if you practice together or not or stuff like that, but if everyone wants to win and do those little things that might lead to winning, we have a good chance.”

Despite Nashville scoring the first two goals of the contest, the Bolts overcame the multi-goal deficit and recorded four consecutive tallies off the sticks of Declan Carlile, Merela, Joe Carroll, and Shawn Element to secure the victory.

Following Nashville’s second goal of the game at the 1:52 mark of the second period, the Lightning responded and made it a one-goal contest when Carlile beat Yaroslav Askarov for Tampa Bay’s first goal of the afternoon. With a faceoff in the Nashville zone to the left of Askarov, invitee Gabriel Szturc won the draw back to Element, who sent a pass across the offensive zone for Carlile to wire a shot far side and make it a 2-1 game with 6:03 remaining in the middle frame.

When the Preds took a kneeing penalty that sent the Bolts to the power play with 1:52 remaining in the second period, Tampa Bay’s first unit capitalized immediately with a heavy one-timer from Ilya Usau that got redirected by Merela to even the score just eight seconds into the man advantage.

Signed to a one-year deal by the Lightning in early June, Merela mentioned during Development Camp that he prides himself on playing a strong 200-foot game and being reliable in all situations, whether that’s five-on-five, power play, or penalty kill. He had an opportunity to prove himself on Friday with the Bolts coaching staff using Merela both shorthanded and with the man advantage.

“I like it a lot,” said Merela. “At the start of the season, it's good to get a lot of reps in and play a lot of minutes because it's always after summer and it's going to take some time to get used to playing again.

“I was fortunate enough to get all those opportunities and play a lot, so that was good.”

Entering the third period with the score tied at two, the Lightning came out of the locker room with a purpose and went up 3-2 just 2:53 into the final frame. Transitioning from defense to offense, Bennett MacArthur forced a Predators turnover in the Tampa Bay zone before Ethan Hay dished the puck back to MacArthur over the Nashville blue line.

Streaking down the boards, MacArthur fed a backhand pass into the slot, where Carroll was waiting with his stick on the ice to redirect the puck into the back of the net for the go-ahead goal.

With 10:21 remaining in the third and the Lightning on the power play, Emil Lilleberg stepped into a shot off a pass from Maxim Groshev that got redirected in front by Element in what would go down as the game-winning goal.

Nashville pressed over the final 10 minutes of regulation, but Hugo Alnefelt stood tall in the Tampa Bay crease and made the save of the game with just under seven minutes remaining. After Fedor Svechkov made a nice pass to the front of the net, Alnefelt moved from right to left and robbed Joakim Kemell with a glove save to keep the score at 4-2.

The Predators were able to add a power-play goal with 2:54 remaining off a heavy one-timer from Kemell, but the Bolts closed out the contest to earn the 4-3 victory and move to 1-0 at the Showcase.

With a five-man shootout set to take place at the conclusion of each game in Estero this weekend, Alnefelt stopped four of five shots from Nashville, while the Lightning got goals from Ethan Gauthier, Szturc, and Tristan Allard.

Gauthier, the youngest skater on Tampa Bay’s roster after being selected with the 37^th overall pick at the 2023 NHL Draft, performed well in his first game with the Bolts. The 18-year-old was all over the ice, threw his weight around, and showed some strong chemistry with his linemates throughout the afternoon.

“I felt good,” said Gauthier after the game. “I think the first two or three shifts were pretty intense. After that, just kind of breathing a bit and trying to take a breather, but I think throughout the game I kind of built on my first two or three shifts.

“It started off pretty hard and I think it got better and better every shift, so I was pretty happy with that and myself as well. I can definitely build on that for next two games.

“I think we’re pretty happy with that game. Obviously as the first game, we knew it wasn’t going to be a perfect game, but I think we did pretty good. We followed the system – everything we’ve worked on the past two or three days.

“Obviously it wasn’t perfect, but we can definitely build on this game and how we played for the next two games.”

With one win in the bank, the Lightning will be right back at it tomorrow afternoon with a 3 p.m. tilt against the Carolina Hurricanes. Fans looking to catch the action can stream the game live at NHL.com/Lightning.