Predators 3, Lightning 2: Mike Santorelli scored his first goal with the club and Pekka Rinne reached 40 wins for the second time in his career as visiting Nashville edged Tampa Bay.

Mike Ribeiro and Paul Gaustad also scored to go along with Santorelli’s 12th of the season (11 with Toronto) as the Predators moved one point ahead of St. Louis for first place in the Central Division. Rinne, who posted a career-best 43 victories in 2011-12, turned aside 28 shots to tie Montreal’s Carey Price for the league lead in wins.

Vladislav Namestnikov and Brian Boyle tallied for the Lightning, who saw their four-game winning streak come to an end and finished 4-2-0 on their homestand. Ben Bishop allowed three goals on 11 shots and Andrei Vasilevskiy made eight saves in relief for Tampa Bay, which went 0-of-5 on the power play and remained one point behind first-place Montreal in the Atlantic.

Ribeiro deflected defenseman Roman Josi’s shot from the left point past Bishop 3:28 into the game and Gaustad batted home a rebound 40 seconds later to double the lead. Namestnikov halved the deficit on a wraparound, banking the puck off Rinne’s pad with 29 seconds remaining in the first period.

Santorelli knocked in his own rebound 6:47 into the second to end Bishop’s night, but Boyle was left alone in front to score his 15th at 13:19 after receiving a nifty pass from J.T. Brown. Rinne stopped all 11 shots he faced over the final 20 minutes and Nashville killed off a late penalty to win its third straight contest.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The assist by Josi gave him six points in his last six contests. … Nashville C Matt Cullen (lower body) missed his second straight game and LW James Neal (upper body) sat out for the sixth consecutive contest. … Tampa Bay C Cedric Paquette returned to the lineup after missing six games with an upper-body injury and finished with three hits and two takeaways in 11:36 of ice time.