TAMPA www.senatorsshoponline.com , Fla. (AP) Nikita Kucherov got the Tampa Bay Lightning off to a strong start in their first home game in three weeks.Kucherov stopped an 11-game goal drought, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for his NHL-best 32nd victory, and the Lightning beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 on Thursday night.Yanni Gourde, Adam Erne, Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman also scored for the Lightning, who returned home after a 5-3 trip.”We had the puck a lot because we were smart with it in the neutral zone,” Stamkos said. ”It allowed dominating shifts in their defensive zone.”Vancouver’s Brock Boeser scored his 26th goal and Anders Nilsson stopped 31 shots.”They know how to put the puck in the net,” Nilsson said. ”That’s a good team over there. I felt OK but obviously none of us were good enough.”Kucherov opened the scoring on his 28th goal by converting a rebound 14:36 into the first period.”You’re not going to keep a kid like that down for long Ottawa Senators T-Shirts Womens ,” Stamkos said. ”It was a matter of time. You could tell by his celebration he was happy to score.”After Gourde got his 20th goal during a power play at 1:38 of the second, Erne made it 3-0 with 6:20 left in the second in his first NHL game this season.The Lightning recalled Erne from Syracuse of the AHL before the game.”I was a little nervous in the beginning,” Erne said.Stamkos completed Tampa Bay’s three-goal second when he picked his up 20th goal late in the period.”I didn’t think our first two period were as bad as the score, Canucks center Henrik Sedin said. ”It should not have been 4-0 after two periods. Daniel (Sedin) has a couple of good chances and we just don’t score.”Stamkos tied Martin St. Louis for the second most 20-goal seasons in Lightning history with nine. Vincent Lecavalier tops the list with 12.Boeser, the MVP at last month’s NHL All-Star game in Tampa, had a power-play goal early in the third.Sven Baertschi cut the deficit to 4-2 midway through the period.Hedman had a late power-play goal.NOTES: Canucks C Sam Gagner, with a sprained ankle, sat out. … Vancouver C Brenden Gaunce will miss two to four weeks with a foot injury. … Tampa Bay D Dan Girardi returned after missing three games due to a lower-body injury. … The Lightning have out scored their opponents 73-45 in the second period. … Gourde has a three-game goal streak. … Canucks C Markus Granlund left with an ankle injury and is returning to Vancouver. … Nilsson is 0-3 against Tampa Bay.UP NEXTCanucks: Play Friday night at Carolina.Lightning: Will retire Lecavalier’s uniform No. 4 before Saturday night’s home game against Los Angeles. He will join St. Louis as the only Tampa Bay players so honored. NASHVILLE Ottawa Senators Hoodies Womens , Tenn. (AP) — The Nashville Predators credited their defensive effort after their latest win.Kevin Fiala scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period and the Predators beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 Monday night. Ryan Ellis also scored and Pekka Rinne stopped 21 shots to help Nashville win its second straight.“I thought we were really good defensively tonight,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “They’ve got a lot of tools over there, a lot of people that can hurt you, certainly that top line and they’ve got some guys from the back end that can really move the puck and add to the rush.”Rinne stopped eight shots in the first, five in the second and eight in the third. Five of the eight Rinne turned away in the third came in the final 1:17 with Hutton lifted for an extra attacker — including a stop on a slap shot by the Sabres’ Jack Eichel with 15.4 seconds remaining.“That was one of our better defensive games all year,” Rinne said. “Guys did an extremely good job just staying with it. … They have a lot of team speed and they’re top couple of lines are pretty dangerous.”Sam Reinhart had a goal for Buffalo, which is 0-2-1 since a 10-game winning streak — with each loss coming by one goal. Carter Hutton had 23 saves.“It seems like we’ve been having trouble for a little bit here,” Reinhart said. “So we’ve got to figure that out Ottawa Senators Hats Womens , get back to what gave us success earlier.”On the Predators’ go-ahead goal, Craig Smith had the puck in the left corner and found Fiala at the left faceoff dot, where he snapped a quick wrist shot between Hutton’s pads with 3:26 left in the middle period. It gave Fiala six points in his last six games.Reinhart had tied the score 1-1 earlier in the period. After a mad scramble in front, Reinhart’s backhand was turned aside by Rinne but Nashville captain Roman Josi’s clearing attempt with his backhand went into the net, giving Reinhart his seventh of the season at 5:20.“I did like the shot mentality in that little spurt,” Sabres coach Phil Housley said. “I thought there were times where we did control the play. But other than that, I didn’t mind the way we played. I just thought we needed to generate more.”Housley served as an assistant coach with the Predators for four seasons prior to getting the head coaching job in Buffalo.Ellis scored the game’s first goal with 3:35 left in the first. With the Predators on a power play, Josi sent a pass from the right point to Ellis at the top of the left faceoff circle Custom Ottawa Senators Jerseys , and Ellis fired a one-timer high to Hutton’s glove side.“Great win for us, I think especially the defense played well and Peks was Peks like always,” Josi said. “It’s a huge win. That’s a good team over there. They’re playing really well this year.”NOTES: The road team had won the previous six matchups between the teams. … Nashville is 15-1-0 this season when scoring first. … Predators C Nick Bonino returned to the lineup after missing one game with an illness. … Reinhart has six goals and one assist in seven career games against Nashville. … Hutton, who served as Rinne’s backup in Nashville for three seasons beginning in the 2013-14 season, dropped to 0-3-1 against his former team.UP NEXTSabres: Host Toronto on Tuesday night to open a stretch of four straight at home.Predators: At Vancouver on Thursday night.