"I think we were a little nervous, and I think Tampa really took it to us," Milwaukee Admirals Head Coach Karl Taylor, who is leading the Preds at the Showcase, said. "They played with a little more pace and a little more energy. They definitely got to our net front, and we didn't do as good of a job going the other way, so we were taking on water a little bit, and I thought it was a little unfortunate for our goaltenders. We hung them out a little bit. So, message sent, and now we get our wake-up call, and we've got to get some rest and get ready for tomorrow."
"I thought we played pretty hard, but obviously there's a lot of things to improve on as a team and myself individually," Tomasino said. "That was our first game, but you've got to be better. That was only our third skate together, so I think it was a pretty good effort, but I think just being harder on pucks, skating more, that's something we need to continue to improve on."
The Lightning held a 2-1 lead after the opening period, but Preds forward Egor Afanasyev helped to get the visitors on the board when he sent a slick backhand pass across the slot to a wide-open Tomasino, and No. 26 in Gold finished things off for his first of the tournament.
After Tampa Bay went up by two in the second stanza, Smith led the rush on a 2-on-1, and he elected to shoot a wrister into the twine to bring Nashville back to within one after 40 minutes of play.
"Phil played well, and I think he stood out as probably our best forward," Taylor said of Tomasino. "Smith tried really hard, obviously they both scored a goal, but I thought both those guys did a good job trying to change the flow of what was occurring. I thought Egor did a good job, he had some good energy, but we just need, as a group, to regroup. That's our first game, and I think it's a situation where lots of guys are nervous. They want to do well, they're not sure what to expect, but now we know that, so there's absolutely no reason to be surprised tomorrow."
The Predators prospects don't have much time to rest with a 9 a.m. CT start Sunday morning against the Florida Panthers rookies, but they'll certainly be eager for a chance to collect their first win of the three-game tournament with a better idea of how to find success.
"We've got to go to the net hard and get them to react to us," Taylor said. "Today, we reacted to them, and we've got to dictate the pace and the compete level. Today, we responded to the other team's pace and compete level, and that's never a good recipe."
"We just need to continue to get better in every aspect of our game," Tomasino said. "Forechecking and picking up bodies on the backcheck, that's something that we've covered a lot, but I think we still need to improve on that for sure. If we do that, we'll definitely come up with a better outcome than today."
Notes:
Devin Cooley started the game for the Predators in net and surrendered two goals before Tomas Vomacka took over halfway through the contest and allowed the final three tallies against.
All games at the Prospect Showcase feature a five-round shootout following regulation regardless of the score, and Vomacka stopped four of five Lightning shooters while Nicholas Porco and Jake Jaremko scored for the Preds.
Tommy Novak served as Nashville's captain, while Cole Smith and Patrick Harper each sported an 'A' on Saturday afternoon. Novak assisted on Smith's goal, one of four Preds players to register a point.
The Predators have an early start on Sunday morning when they face prospects from the Florida Panthers at 9 a.m. CT from Tampa; the game may be viewed on NashvillePredators.com.
