A mass of flesh pressed against an iron divider outside Nissan Stadium late Saturday afternoon, when a group of kids began a "Let's go, Preds!" chant.

The small crowd surrounding them, most dressed in gold and lined up three and four deep between Gates 8 and 10 at Nissan Stadium, jubilantly joined in while they awaited the team's arrival more than two hours before the start of the first outdoor NHL game in Tennessee history.

Behind them, the team, cloaked in custom leather jackets and cowboy hats — an outlaw cowboy ensemble — pulled up a few minutes later on a double-decker party bus, the pageantry palpable.

Former Predator Pekka Rinne led the brigade into the stadium, prompting shrieks from the same group of kids who began the chants. Mikael Granlund, Roman Josi and Tennessee Titans lineman Taylor Lewan followed, slapping high-fives to extended hands, just like every Predators player.

Their foes had shown up in Canadian tuxedos a little earlier.

The Predators don't win every game, but Nashville was out to prove on this night that it never loses a party.

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There was a smash boat, of course, painted in Tampa Bay Lightning colors and smashed by Nashville hammers. There was a fanfest in Parking Lot R, where attendees took turns testing various hockey skills and drinking beverages.

Along with a throng of fans, the Lightning also brought with them the beach from Tampa.

Inside the stadium, musical acts took turns playing their tunes.

A pair of Zambonis manicured the ice one last time about an hour before the puck dropped and the party rolled into a series of concerts, which rolled into a hockey game, which rolled into a boxing match that eventually was won 3-2 by the Lightning.

The game didn't start without another grand entrance, at 6:04 p.m., when Predators goalie Juuse Saros led the pack this time. This time the Predators, outfitted in stocking caps and their Stadium Series uniforms, marched through the tunnel toward center stage for pregame warmups.

"You tried to take in as much as you could walking up and down that tunnel," Predators forward Filip Forsberg said. "Try to embrace it

"Pretty surreal coming out of the locker room and seeing the full stadium," Josi said.

All of that before Lewan and Titans punter Brett Kern joined Rinne at center ice for the ceremonial puck drop. Before Lewan handed Rinne a catfish, which he promptly tossed onto the ice. All of this happening two nights after Rinne's number retirement across the Cumberland River at Bridgestone Arena.

The "Let's go, Predators!" screams continued as the team left the ice after warmups, backed by many of the 68,619 in attendance.

At 6:39, the lights went out and musician Dustin Lynch took his turn on the stage.

The crowd poured boos on the Lightning, who took the ice as Lynch performed. The Predators lined up next to them just off the ice, goalies Saros and Andrei Vasilevskiy in front, Jessie James Decker signing the national anthem between them.

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The puck finally was introduced to the ice just shy of 6:45 p.m., with 40-degree temperatures occupying the air and the sound of skate blades slicing the ice.

Tanner Jeannot scored the first goal of the game, prompting some familiarity. "I Like It, I Love It," was performed live, goalie taunts from the crowd followed and Paul McCann's voice boomed over the PA system announcing the particulars of the goal.

Nashville's Michael McCarron and Tampa Bay's Pat Maroon dropped their gloves not long after that, when the first of several boxing matches broke out during the hockey game at the football stadium. Even the officials played up to the hype, with one taking a dramatic pause while announcing that each had received a five-minute penalty "for ... fighting."

Steam rose from the ice between periods when the Zambonis again went to work, just before Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert performed. Just before Gnash — the Predators' mascot — sat front row in front of Lambert, holding a sign that said, "I'm single."

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The game continued with Brayden Point's tying goal on the power play, 58 seconds into the second period.

The Predators' Ryan Johansen kept the boxing theme going in the second, when he tangled with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in what was more of a wrestling bout in a game that could have been played outside a Broadway bar, considering the brawls.

Lit's “My Own Worst Enemy” played right after Johansen was taken down by Victor Hedman on what many thought should have resulted in a penalty shot during the third, with the Lightning ahead 3-1.

Instead, Filip Forsberg scored a power-play goal to cut the deficit to one 12:29 into the period, his 27th of goal of the season, leaving him six shy of breaking David Legwand’s career franchise record of 210 goals and eight short of breaking Viktor Arvidsson’s single-season record.

"For sure we wanted to send some people over to Broadway happy," Forsberg said. "Now, I guess a couple people will be, at least.

"Everything was awesome, except the final result. It's been one of the greatest weeks in franchise history."

Encouraged to “Jump Around” as time was winding down, all Predators fans could do was hope. Time, though, wasn’t on the Predators’ side.

Fittingly, the show ended with another all-out scrum behind the Lightning net after the final horn had finally sounded.

Which was something of a relief for the hockey team from Nashville, a chance for the team to catch its breath before returning to some sense of normalcy after an out-of-the-ordinary month of February.

"This month presented so many different challenges," coach John Hynes said. "Real proud of how the guys handled this week."

Reach Paul Skrbina at pskrbina@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @PaulSkrbina.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Predators lose outdoor game but Nashville shows it never loses a party