Johansen, Predators defeat Wild to gain ground in Central Division

NASHVILLE --Ryan Johansen scored his first NHL hat trick, Juuse Saros made 47 saves, and the Nashville Predators defeated the Minnesota Wild 6-2 at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

Johansen gave Nashville a 2-1 lead at 13:52 of the first period, redirecting a pass from Filip Forsberg at the top of the crease on the power play. He extended the lead to 3-1 at 19:03, redirecting a slap pass from Roman Josi for another power-play goal, and added an empty-net goal at 19:53 of the third for the 6-2 final.
"Yeah, awesome to get it in a big game, and at home here, too," said Johansen, who was playing in his 774th NHL game. "It was really cool. It's been a long time, so it was nice to get it."

Josi and forward Philip Tomasino each had a goal and two assists, and Matt Duchene had a goal and an assist for Nashville (40-25-4), which has won three of four and moved four points back of the St. Louis Blues for third in the Central Division.
The Predators also remained one point ahead of the Dallas Stars, who hold the second wild card from the Western Conference.
"We thrive on hard, fast, competitive hockey," Duchene said. "We thrive on it, meaningful hockey. We're a team that, earlier in the year, some of the top teams were beating us. We addressed it, talked about it. Since then, it's been the ability to get our game up to the top level. That's us in a nutshell tonight."
Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov each had a goal and an assist, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves for Minnesota (43-21-5), which had gone 9-0-1 in its past 10 games since losing 6-2 to the Predators on March 13. The Wild are in second place in the Central Division, three points ahead of the Blues.
Josi made it 1-0 with a power-play goal at 5:10 of the first period, beating Fleury with a wrist shot glove side.
"We have to find a way to stay the [heck] out of the box because, obviously, they've got special players and special power-play players and they hurt us," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "Our 5-on-5 game is great. [Saros] is fantastic, a fantastic goaltender. They blocked a lot of shots. I don't know how many attempts we had at the net. We did a lot of good things. We're going to take some serious positivity out of this game, but disappointed."

Zuccarello tied it 1-1 at 13:27 after Kaprizov took advantage of a Nashville turnover and found him alone in front.
Following Johansen's power-play goals, Tomasino made it 4-1 at 6:06 of the second period, scoring from the slot off a backhand pass from Josi.
"It was a man's game," Nashville coach John Hynes said. "There wasn't a lot of time and space. ... Special teams were key. But this game wasn't for the faint of heart … That's the edge our team plays with."
Kaprizov cut the lead to 4-2 at 17:51 with his 40th goal of the season. His initial shot was blocked by Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm, but the puck went back to him and he scored on the 5-on-3 power play.

Duchene extended the lead to 5-2 at 13:28 of the third period, scoring bar down from the right face-off circle.
"It was a hard hockey game, competitive," Minnesota forward Marcus Foligno said. "You take the penalty kills out of the situation, we were a better hockey team, I believe. It's a tough one, but I'm proud of our group, the way we pushed back."
Wild defenseman Matt Dumba left the game with an upper-body injury at 4:01 of the second period after hitting Nashville forward Michael McCarron. Evason did not know his status postgame but said, "it doesn't look good."
NOTES: Zuccarello is the sixth player in Wild history to have at least 70 points in a season (21 goals, 50 assists). He also tied their record for assists in a season, set by Pierre-Marc Bouchard in 2007-08. … The Predators' three power-play goals in a period matched their record. … Duchene has set a career high with 72 points (36 goals, 36 assists). … Nashville forward Eeli Tolvanen was a healthy scratch, missing his first game since Jan. 27. … Predators defenseman Mark Borowiecki had an assist, three shots on goal and two hits in 11:44 of ice time after missing four games with an upper-body injury. … Predators defenseman Dante Fabbro had two shots on goal, one hit and five blocked shots in 19:06 of ice time after missing five games with an upper-body injury. … Kaprizov has 11 points (eight goals, three assists) in his past eight games. … Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon has a five-game assist streak (five assists). … Fleury lost for the first time (3-1-0) since being acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks on March 21.