Predators defeat Blackhawks for fourth straight win

CHICAGO -- Luke Kunin had two assists in his return from a lower-body injury, and the Nashville Predators extended their winning streak to four games with a 3-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Saturday.

"It's always nice to contribute offensively," said Kunin, who missed 13 games. "I thought I felt better and more confident as the game went on, obviously a long time since playing in a game. I was happy with that one and just want to keep getting better."
Juuse Saros made 29 saves for Nashville (17-17-1), which played without forward Filip Forsberg because of an upper-body injury. He is day to day.
"I thought [Ryan] Johansen's line did respond," Predators coach John Hynes said of Forsberg's absence. "I thought Johansen was really good. He was moving his feet, and that's the thing: When [he's] not a willing skater, he's not as effective as he can be. Tonight, he was moving his feet. [Viktor] Arvidsson came in and brought some energy to the line, and [Eeli] Tolvanen had a good response too. So that was nice."
Pius Suter scored, and Kevin Lankinen made 31 saves for Chicago (16-14-5), which had won two straight after a four-game losing streak.
"[The Predators] were skating, they were working extremely hard, [and] they were aggressive all over the ice," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. "They beat us to a lot of loose pucks. They kind of beat us at our own game tonight."
The teams play again here Sunday.
Johansen scored on a one-timer from the slot off Arvidsson's backhand pass from below the goal line to give the Predators a 1-0 lead at 5:10 of the first period.

Rocco Grimaldi made it 2-0 at 12:58 of the second period when he scored from the high slot after Kunin tipped Blackhawks forward David Kampf's clearing attempt.
Suter cut it to 2-1 at 17:33 with a backhand shot off the rebound of a shot by Patrick Kane. He has scored a goal in three straight games.
"I couldn't get much going before it scoring-wise, [I'd] been unlucky, and now they go in," Suter said. "Hopefully, we get some team points out of those."
Mikael Granlund gave the Predators a 3-1 lead 51 seconds into the third period after Kunin intercepted defenseman Calvin de Haan's pass and sent a feed to the far post.
"We're tracking pucks, causing turnovers, and that's how we get a lot of those chances," Granlund said. "We're really tight as a unit all the time. We've been getting a lot of good chances and obviously trying to put the other team on their heels."

Saros kept Nashville in front by two when he cleared a loose puck off the goal line with his stick at 11:12. He has allowed one goal or fewer in his past seven decisions dating to Feb. 27 (6-1-0); he left in the first period of a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on March 2 with an upper-body injury after allowing two goals.
Blackhawks forward Kirby Dach was minus-1 with one shot on goal in 20:08 in his season debut. He broke his right wrist Dec. 23 playing a pretournament game for Canada at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship. He had surgery Dec. 29 and was expected to be out 4-5 months; Saturday was two days short of three months.
"It felt good," Dach said. "Obviously, there's still some things that I'd like to get better at, but that doesn't really include what's going on with my wrist and injury-wise. I felt good out there. It's good to kind of get back into the swing of things. I think there's still another level that I can take my game to."
NOTES: The Predators were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and are 21-for-22 in their past seven games. … Nashville defenseman Matt Benning did not play because of an upper-body injury. He is day to day. ... Suter's 11 goals are tied with Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov for the NHL rookie lead.