Saros makes 21 saves, Predators shut out Blackhawks

NASHVILLE -- Juuse Saros made 21 saves for his second shutout of the season, and the Nashville Predators defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-0 at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

"I feel good," Saros said. "But you've got to take it one game at a time and try to find that consistency."

Gustav Nyquist and Ryan O'Reilly each had a goal and an assist for the Predators (21-16-1), who have points in three straight games (2-0-1).

"It was nice to get the win back at home, and good to see [Saros] get the shutout there," Nyquist said. "That was awesome. I thought it was an OK game. It was kind of a hard game. They’re checking hard. You get a little timid maybe and don’t want to make a mistake when it’s only 1-0. I didn’t love our second maybe, but good to get the job done."

Arvid Soderblom made 33 saves for the Blackhawks (11-24-2), who have lost three straight and are 1-4-1 in their past six games.

"I think we did pretty good in front of our net tonight," Chicago defenseman Nikita Zaitsev said. "We’d love to win, especially for [Soderblom]. He made lots of crazy saves today. Unfortunately we didn’t [win], but still it’s a good game. We can think about it and just keep going from that."

Nyquist gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 5:16 of the first period with a wrist shot from the left circle on the power play. He has nine points (five goals, four assists) during a six-game point streak.

"He's playing great," Predators captain Roman Josi said of Nyquist. "I feel like he’s been playing great the whole year. He’s so good on the power play. He’s great. He’s very patient with the puck. He makes some really good plays. He’s an awesome leader in our locker room. He’s been nothing but great since he came here."

O'Reilly pushed it to 2-0 at 15:23 of the third period on a 5-on-3 power play, putting in a cross-crease pass from Filip Forsberg at the right post.

"It was just great efforts by [Forsberg]," O’Reilly said. "Obviously it's a big situation. We want to get a goal there and such, and he just works and works, wins a play and then draws a penalty. That play on that goal, anyone could’ve scored that. It was an amazing play he made to me there."

Luke Evangelista scored an empty-net goal at 19:27 for the 3-0 final.

"I thought the guys battled," Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. "It was the first step of where we want to go. We don't like the results. We can't accept them in this league, but the coaching staff is proud of how we asked them to battle yesterday at practice and bring it to tonight’s game. Unfortunately, we didn't get any luck around their net, but the process of how we want to play is there."

Blackhawks forward Anthony Beauvillier left the game with an upper-body injury after he was hit into the boards by Forsberg in the second period.

"It didn’t look good," Richardson said of Beauvillier. "He obviously didn’t finish the game, and we’ll get to New York tomorrow and see how he's feeling there and go from there. We were short-staffed at the wrong time because [Blackhawks forward Nick Foligno] was in the box as well.”

NOTES: Chicago forward Connor Bedard finished the game without a shot on goal. … Forward Brett Seney played his first game of the season for the Blackhawks after he was recalled from Rockford of the American Hockey League on Monday. He finished with one shot on goal in 11:27 of ice time. … Predators goaltender Kevin Lankinen was available as the backup after missing the past three games because of an illness.