Preds Complete Perfect Road Trip, Shut Out Rangers in New York

Juuse Saros stopped all 32 shots he faced as the Nashville Predators shut out the New York Rangers by a 1-0 final on Sunday evening at Madison Square Garden. The result gives the Preds a perfect four-game road trip and extends their win streak to five games overall.
Philip Tomasino scored the lone goal to finish out the excursion for the Predators as they handed the Rangers just their sixth regulation loss of the season. The win also bumped Nashville up to the 35-point mark on the campaign.

Neither club was able to find twine through the game's opening period, but just 1:44 into the second stanza, Tomasino sniped a shot from near the right point that beat Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev to give Nashville a 1-0 lead through 40 minutes.
And that was all Saros and the Preds needed. The netminder continued to shut the door with 16 saves in the third period alone, and Nashville completed one of the more satisfying road trips in recent memory with all eight possible points collected during the week.
The Predators now own the NHL's longest active win streak with five in a row.

Sunday Storyline:

Four games, eight points.
That's exactly how the Predators would have drawn things up when they departed Nashville last Monday, and after making stops in Detroit, Long Island, Newark and Manhattan, they left their opponents with nothing to celebrate.
But the Preds sure did.
Impressive efforts throughout the trip while missing key pieces from the lineup - including Sunday's outing that saw top forwards Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen unable to play - led Nashville to success with the toughest test of all to finish it off.
"[Trying to] make it [not just] a good road trip, which could have been 3-1, but to make it a great road trip, which would be 4-0, and against a Top Five team in the League, I just really liked the mental focus of the guys and just the fortitude to be ready to go," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "We were ready to start the game, and I liked the energy in the room. It was a hard-fought battle. We found a way to do it, and it's another step forward, for sure. The grittiness, the identity, the mental and physical toughness that we continue to talk about with our group - it was a good test, and the guys rose to the challenge today."
"They're a Top Five team in the League, so it was a great test for us," Tomasino said. "We were missing Dutchy and Joey, who are arguably two of our best forwards, so it was definitely a challenge tonight, but I think everyone came in with the mentality that there's no excuses and we're going to execute our game, and I think we did that."
As he usually is on most nights, Saros was a key contributor to Nashville's triumph on Sunday with his second shutout of the season and 16th of his career. Tomasino didn't hold back when asked about Saros, calling the Finn the "best goaltender in the world" following the 32-save performance.
Saros, humble as ever, responded with a simple, "That was a lot of nice words." Appropriate, considering the fact he made a lot of nice saves.
"I think it shows a lot of what kind of team we are," Saros said of the Preds finding ways to win on the road trip. "I think we've been a really tight-knit group since the first day of training camp, pretty much. So, even if there's something unexpected happening, I feel like whoever is in the lineup you can always trust each other. It's a good sign, for sure."

Tomasino was part of that positive indicator on Sunday, one more player who contributed to the cause with other teammates out of the lineup over the past week. And whether he's scoring or not, Tomasino has been part of the solution - a collective effort by the entire group to continue playing in a way that simply works for the club.
"I think our main message throughout our whole year has been our forecheck," Tomasino said. "I think that's our identity... We kind of got to that early tonight and started creating a lot of turnovers, and that's when we play our best… We did that really well, and that's what we've kind of tried to emphasize, especially on the road, trying to do as much as possible. We've executed pretty well, and it's worked out pretty well so far. So, I think just sticking to our identity, I think it's working really well and hopefully we can continue that momentum here."
The Preds would prefer to do just that, and they'll return home to host Calgary and Colorado this week, two of the top teams in the Western Conference. The confidence gained from four wins on the road - and five straight overall - will help with those challenges, and winning makes everything better.
"I think we're just having fun," Tomasino said. "I've said it in the past, but we come to the rink every day, we're having fun, we're working for each other and we're trying to be the best teammates we can be for each other. So, this was definitely a big road trip for our group.
"It was an unbelievable road trip for us. I think tonight was probably the hardest game of the road trip, but we came up with a win. It was an awesome trip for our team, and hopefully we continue it with the homestand coming up in the next couple days."

Highlight of the Night:

They Said It:

Juuse Saros on finding success away from home:
"I feel like when you get big points on the road, it kind of boosts the team. Obviously, you can't really dwell on it too much - we've got a lot of big games next week also - but [we're] just trying to take the positive out of it and then kind of forget about it. [We] just have to get ready for the next week."

Notes:

Prior to Sunday's game, Predators center Ryan Johansen was placed on the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list. Forward Michael McCarron was recalled from Milwaukee and took his spot on a line centering Yakov Trenin and Tanner Jeannot.
"He's feeling OK," Hynes said of Johansen. "I haven't personally talked to him yet today, but I don't think he's too bad."
Preds forward Colton Sissons returned to the lineup on Sunday after missing Friday's game with an upper-body injury, but forward Matt Duchene was absent for a second consecutive outing, and he remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Defensemen Ben Harpur and Philippe Myers were scratched for Nashville on Sunday.
With their four-game trip now complete, the Predators will return to Nashville for a two-game homestand, and it begins on Tuesday night as the Calgary Flames come to town.