Postgame Quotes Nashville Predators vs.

Predators Quotes On his thoughts on tonight’s game… It went back and forth. There were times they owned it and I thought there were times we owned it. In the end, for me, for us, it’s probably disappointing the way we finished it. We had a lead with three minutes to go and we sit here with only one point.

On Pontus Aberg’s performance… I thought he had a good game tonight, certainly off the rush and that chance that he got where he was able to finish and contribute that way offensively. When you get put into those positions, I think it’s important that you do your best to grab hold of it and make the most of it. With a guy like Filip (Forsberg) out, it’s a great opportunity for Pontus.

On Juuse Saros’ performance tonight… He was good. They scored a couple goals; we didn’t give up a lot of chances early on, but the ones we did give up, they were big chances and tough chances. We’ve got to be better than that in front of him. We can’t fault him on those, (they’re) just mistakes we made. At that point I thought we had gotten our rhythm and were going a little bit, but when we made a mistake, it was in the net and point-blank chances.

On Viktor Arvidsson’s’ contributions to tonight’s game… He’s a big part of what we do here, and like you said he factored into it. There’s things we all could have done better defensively tonight. There were just some mistakes that we made and you have to learn from it and move on. But, he’s a big part of what we do.

Defenseman Ryan Ellis On what stands out to him about tonight’s game… I thought we played a pretty good game. That’s the best team (points wise) in the League and good teams find a way to win. But for us personally, I think just execution. At different times in the game and obviously at the end, we just lacked a little execution there and it cost us obviously the tying goal. After that, overtime is 50-50 from there.

On if the teams figured each other out more as the game progressed… I think it was full throttle throughout the entire game. They were coming at us getting chances. We were going at them getting chances. At different times in the game, we played better. At different times in the game, they played better. At the end of the day, I think that’s natural for two really good hockey teams. I mean look how close the score ended up being.

On the competitiveness of the standings and needing that extra point tonight… You win a game and seem to not move at all and you lose a game and seem to take three steps backwards. I think that’s just the point system and it keeps every team really competitive almost until the end.

Goaltender Juuse Saros On what sticks out to him most tonight… It was a fast game and obviously a frustrating loss.

On the Central Division standings… Every team in the Central has been good this year. It’s a really tight race and no team can take their foot off the gas.

Forward Pontus Aberg On his performance this year… It’s been a tough year for me personally. As long as we keep winning, we just need to keep doing extra work at practice and try to bring my game more and more. The last couple of games have been pretty good I think.

On tonight’s loss… They are a good team. It’s a tough team to play. They are skilled players. I think we played good and gave them a little too much. It wasn’t two points, so I’m pretty disappointed right now.

On the home record… I’m feeling really good. We’ve been playing well lately. Like you said, nine out of 10 (points) and we need to keep building off that and get ready for the next game.

Lightning Quotes Head Coach Jon Cooper On confidence boost of winning on the road in Nashville... I don't know exactly their record, but I know it's a lot of wins to not many losses. To gut out a game where it felt like things were going against us, it was big effort by our guys.

On how Tampa Bay turned it around in the second period... It was all about competing, nothing else but our competing. We got that goal early and thought, this could not be the night we expected. But you know how they are, they keep coming at you. We made an adjustment in our work ethic, because they have it in them. For 50 minutes I thought they deserved to pull this one out.

On his thoughts on possible goalie interference on Nashville's third goal... Right when I think I've got the standard figured out. The player comes, he knocks our goalie and spins him around clearly before the puck is in the net. I don't know. I look at it this way. I thought it

was 100 percent goalie interference and I guarantee on their bench, they're sitting there thinking, "Oh this could go 50-50." Turn the page.

Captain On the play that set up his game-tying goal... I was just shooting the puck as hard as I could short-side there. Great play by Kuny (Kunitz) to get it to Koeks (Koekkoek) and he slid it over. It was good to see us get rewarded. Things weren't going our way with the one call on the goal. It was a big gut check for our team with some of the adversity we're facing right now.

On if Tampa Bay settled down after the opening 10 minutes... Absolutely. We almost beat ourselves in the first 10 minutes. It's not easy – we played Chicago last night and coming here, it's one of the toughest buildings to win in, one of the best home teams. They took it to us the first 10 minutes. Louis (Domingue) played great, made some huge saves and really calmed us down.

On getting road wins in tough environments... We knew it wasn't going to be easy. Guys have stepped up. It was frustrating there for a while, but this group believes in itself. We just wanted to stay positive and give ourselves a chance to be in games, not beat ourselves by trying to do too much and forcing plays.

Goalie Louis Domingue On Tampa Bay's comeback... Great character win tonight for us. There was a lot of bounces that didn't go our way, but we stuck with our game plan. We kept digging and the results showed in the end.

On Tampa Bay's confidence boost winning on the road... Our group is really tight together and we show it on the ice. That was something we were looking to get back because we got away from it a bit. We found our swagger back and it showed tonight.

On the frantic feeling of the first 10 minutes... Honestly one of the toughest first periods I've ever been a part of. They were coming. We blocked shots, but sometimes they made plays on the backdoor. I was diving, everybody was diving and we were making blocks. It was an awesome effort.

On his thoughts on possible goalie interference on Nashville's third goal... I'm trying to make a save against one of the best one-timers in the League. There was contact. I don't make decisions, I try and stop pucks. I couldn't move easily there with a guy up on my tail, but it was a tough decision.

On watching Stamkos's game-tying goal... Since I've been here, I haven't seen a big one-timer like that. I was waiting for it. I knew he had it in him. What a key moment to do so.