Nashville won its first home game of the season on Thursday night when the Predators put five pucks behind Mathieu Garon to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 in front of 16 619 in attendance at Bridgestone Arena.

With the game tied at two after the first period, Patric Hornqvist scored his first goal of the season on a feed from Matt Halischuk.

“It was great forechecking by [Matt] Halischuk and [Blake] Geoffrion. They created the turnover. Geoffrion tried to shoot it and it ended up on the stick of Halischuk. He made a great play to me. I had an empty net. It was nice to get that first goal out of the way,” Hornqvist said.

Not everyone agreed it was a good goal.

Garon was tripped on the play. “He clipped me behind the net and tripped me and the ref told me he didn’t see it. Sometimes they don’t see it, so it happens. It’s frustrating but you’ve got to forget about it and focus on the next one. I’ve got to make some saves. If I make a couple more saves, it’s a different game. I’ve got to be better than that,” he said.

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