Predators hold off Jets, win 5th straight

NASHVILLE -- Roman Josi had a goal and two assists for the Nashville Predators, who won their fifth straight game with a 3-2 victory against the Winnipeg Jets at Bridgestone Arena on Sunday.

Yakov Trenin and Gustav Nyquist also scored for the Predators (10-10-0). Juuse Saros made 32 saves.

“I think we’ve got a little bit of a recipe now of how we want to win games, how we want to prepare and approach games,” Nashville defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “It certainly wasn’t perfect at times tonight, and it hasn’t been perfect on the winning streak as well, but you’ve got to find ways to win games. That’s a great sign there. We know we can be better, and we’ll keep improving, and it’ll hopefully lead to some more consistency.”

Josh Morrissey and Cole Perfetti scored for the Jets (12-6-2), who had their five-game winning streak end. Laurent Brossoit made 23 saves.

“Give [Saros] a lot of credit, we came out of the gate hard,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “Just great for 14 minutes, and I thought the last six minutes of [the first period] we started turning the pucks over when there was no need to turn pucks over inside their blue line. Then they got their game going. We got our game going because we were going north and we just kept pushing it back and taking what they were giving us, but the last six minutes of that period we started to try to make cute plays that just weren’t there.”

Trenin gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 19:40 of the first period. Josi's shot from the left circle hit off the left pad of Brossoit and kicked out to Trenin, who scored into an open net.

Josi then made it 2-0 at 1:26 of the second period with a wrist shot from along the left boards that surprised Brossoit and caught the goalie off his post.

“I kind of got lucky on that goal,” Josi said. “I just threw it at the net. I think I had better chances before, but it goes in. Obviously, I want to produce, but if we’re winning and I don’t produce, then I’m totally fine with that. But if we don’t win, it’s definitely a part of my game. It’s been awesome, the whole system I think. It’s been great and really fast.”

Nyquist extended the lead to 3-0 at 6:22 with a power-play goal, redirecting in a backdoor pass from Filip Forsberg at the right post. Nyquist has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) during an eight-game point streak.

“I think [Nyquist] is having fun,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “I think their line (Forsberg, Ryan O'Reilly) is really enjoying each other. They play off of each other. They’re always talking, always thinking, so I think they enjoy it. I think the joy level with that group is pretty special, and you can see it on the ice.”

Morrissey made it 3-1 at 10:28 of the third period. His intended cross-ice pass on a rush was blocked by McDonagh, but the puck deflected back to Morrissey, who scored near the left post.

Perfetti scored a power-play goal from the high slot 42 seconds later to cut it to 3-2.

“They just clogged the middle a lot,” Perfetti said. “We had a tough time getting in through the neutral zone. When we did get it in behind their [defensemen], it was one of those nights where they just kind of found a way to break out every single time, whether it was puck bounces or them making nice plays.”

NOTES: Forsberg has 13 points (nine goals, four assists) in his past eight games. ... O'Reilly's six-game point streak ended. ... Predators defenseman Luke Schenn was minus-1 in 12:05 of ice time in his return after missing 18 games because of a lower-body injury.