Saros, Predators defeat Capitals for 4th straight victory

NASHVILLE -- Juuse Saros made 21 saves for the Nashville Predators in their fourth straight win, 3-1 against the Washington Capitals at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday.

Colton Sissons, Philip Tomasino and Yakov Trenin scored for the Predators (18-13-0), who have won seven of their past eight games, including 6-5 in overtime at the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday. They are 13-3-0 in their past 16.

“I don’t think we’ve really been looking at big picture,” Nashville defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “It’s still a little bit early in the year, but just our approach every day is fine-tuning our game and getting the rest when we can. We’ve obviously played a lot of hockey here and haven’t had two days between a game in a while until just recently. Just trying to approach it as far as setting the tone early in games and playing with that pace as much as we can. When we find that pace, we know we’re a tough team to play against.”

Charlie Lindgren made 20 saves for the Capitals (14-9-4), who had a four-game point streak end (2-0-2).

“Besides the second period, I thought we were really sloppy with the puck,” Washington forward T.J. Oshie said. “Sometimes, you’ve got to tip your hat. They were on a second half of a back-to-back, and they worked all game, won a lot of puck battles and made plays when they had them.”

Sissons gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 5:03 of the first period with a redirection of a point shot by Roman Josi.

“We’re finding ways to win,” Sissons said. “We’ve had games where the penalty kill stepped up huge, which we were not so happy about in the early part of the season. That’s been coming along. The power play has been scoring some timely goals. Some guys up and down the lineup have been scoring some big goals for us. All of those things kind of result in some successes along the way.”

Oshie tied it 1-1 at 5:16 of the second period, tapping a loose puck over the goal line on a 5-on-3 power play.

Tomasino gave the Predators a 2-1 lead at 13:26 of the second period when he deked forehand to backhand on a breakaway after Washington had an extended shift in the Nashville zone.

“I feel like I’ve been having some pretty good chances recently,” Tomasino said. “I’ve been saying I’ve had a lot of breakaways in my career, and I don’t think I’ve scored one yet, so that was nice to get that one out of the way.”

Trenin made it 3-1 at 3:41 of the third period with a one-handed chip over Lindgren on a rebound from the top of the crease.

“I felt like guys were fighting the puck,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “From our back end, especially fighting the puck. So, they have a tough night back there, and then even offensively with a lot of situations that you see that we get into, there’s just not quite that last couple of plays to finish or to get the puck to the middle of the rink.”

NOTES: Saros set an NHL career high with his sixth straight win. ... Predators forward Filip Forsberg had an assist on Sissons’ goal and has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past eight games. ... Nashville forward Kiefer Sherwood missed his second consecutive game because of an upper-body injury. ... Washington forward Evgeny Kuznetsov had one shot on goal in 18:00 of ice time after missing one game because of an illness. He won nine of 11 face-offs (81.8 percent) … Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin had six shots on goal and 14 shot attempts. He has not scored in his past 12 games, the longest goal drought of his career. …