Nashville, Tennessee: Predators Beat Hurricanes 4-1 as Saros Makes 29 Saves

The Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday night, closing a five game homestand with a win over the defending Stanley Cup champions. Roman Josi and Ross Colton each finished with a goal and an assist for Nashville. Nick Perbix and Adam Edstrom also scored, Filip Forsberg added two assists, and Juuse Saros made 29 saves.

Nashville (6-4-5) won its second game in a row and took points for the fifth time in six games. Carolina (12-3-2) lost a six game point streak that stood at 5-0-1. Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov made 16 saves and lost for the first time this season after a 10 game winning streak to open the year.

How the goals came

Perbix opened the scoring in the first period, firing from the right circle after a cross ice pass from Forsberg, with 7:28 left in the period. It was his first goal of the season, and Nashville led 1-0 at the first intermission even though Carolina outshot the Predators 9-5 in the period.

Josi made it 2-0 at 3:29 of the second period, taking another Forsberg cross ice pass at the bottom of the left circle and beating Kochetkov in one motion. Jackson Blake cut the lead to 2-1 with 9:32 left in the second. Blake had his first shot blocked by Josi, followed the loose puck and lifted a backhand under the crossbar from the slot. The goal extended Blake's point streak to seven games, with three goals and six assists in that run.

Edstrom restored the two goal lead at 5:40 of the third period. He tipped a Josi shot in the air for his career high sixth goal of the season and his second goal in two games. Colton closed the scoring with an empty net goal in the final minute, at 19:20 according to the NHL game recap.

Saros, in front of Rinne

The Predators played on Hockey Fights Cancer night with former goaltender Pekka Rinne in the building on his birthday, a week before his Hall of Fame induction. Saros, who learned under Rinne in Nashville, made 12 of his 29 saves in the third period, according to the Tennessean, which also cited MoneyPuck data putting Saros at 2.56 goals saved above expected. Saros improved to 4-3-4 this season.

"There's no way he was going to let Rinne down, right?" Josi said, in the Predators report. "It's big brother here, and Saros was amazing." Head coach Andrew Brunette said Rinne lifts the players who played with him when he is around the team.

Forsberg's two assists extended his multipoint streak to five games, tying the franchise record Josi set in 2021-22, according to NHL Stats in the Predators report. Reuters counted Forsberg's wider point streak at five games with four goals and seven assists. Josi's goal was the game winner and tied Scott Niedermayer at 39 for the eighth most game winning goals by a defenseman in NHL history.

Shane Wright made his Nashville debut after his trade from Seattle, centering a line with Forsberg and Nils Hoglander. The Predators report said Wright won 54 percent of his faceoffs and was plus 2 in 14:32 of ice time. Nashville played without Jonathan Marchessault, who is day to day with a lower body injury. The Predators travel to Colorado to face the Avalanche on Thursday.