Forsberg, Evangelista Each Score Twice as Preds Rout Blues, 8-3

The Nashville Predators scored a season-high eight goals and earned their fourth straight win with an 8-3 rout of the St. Louis Blues on Friday at Enterprise Center.

Filip Forsberg (2g-1a), Luke Evangelista (2g-1a) and Kiefer Sherwood (1g-2a) led Nashville with three points apiece, and Kevin Lankinen made 36 saves between the pipes. The Predators scored eight goals for the first time since March 5, 2022 at San Jose. Per NHL PR, Nashville became the fifth team this season to score at least seven goals through the first two periods of a game, joining the Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes. The Preds improved to 9-10-0 on the season with the win.

Nashville’s offensive onslaught began early, when Forsberg dug the loose puck out of St. Louis goalie Joel Hofer’s pads after a scrum in front of the net and stuffed it in to get the Preds on the board first at 6:57 of the first period.

The Preds widened their lead less than a minute later, when Yakov Trenin capitalized on a 3-on-1 and slid the puck under Hofer’s pads to make it 2-0.

Nashville kept piling on the goals as Evangelista buried a tic-tac-toe passing play, coming around from behind the net and one-timing a pass from Sherwood into the back of the net to make it 3-0 with 6:07 remaining in the first period.

Pavel Buchnevich got one back for St. Louis, burying a pass from Marco Scandella to make it 3-1 heading into the first intermission.

Spencer Stastney got the scoring started in the second period, skating down the slot and beating Hofer in the top right corner for his first NHL goal to make it 4-1 less than three minutes into the frame. After Stastney's goal, Jordan Binnington entered the game in relief of Hofer, who had allowed four goals on 15 shots.

Two minutes later, with penalties called on Buchnevich and Nikita Alexandrov, Ryan O’Reilly scored against his former team on the 5-on-3 advantage to extend Nashville’s lead to 5-1.

Evangelista scored his second of the game just over a minute later, burying his second attempt after his initial shot was blocked to widen Nashville’s lead to 6-1.

Robert Thomas cut the deficit to 6-2 at 10:17 with a wrist shot from the left circle.

Forsberg scored his second goal of the game at 17:29 of the middle frame on a quick shot from the slot to make it 7-2.

Jake Neighbours scored for St. Louis on the power play following a Tyson Barrie interference penalty, directing in Torey Krug's point shot at 5:23 of the third period to make it 7-3.

Sherwood buried the rebound on a Cole Smith shot in front of the net at 12:42 for the 8-3 final.

PREDS STANDOUTS

Big Filly Style: Forsberg extended his team lead in points to 22 (10g-12a) with three points (2g-1a) against the Blues; he has points in 10 of his last 12 games (9g-8a). Forsberg has also produced at more than a point-per-game rate against St. Louis in his career, recording 38 points (17g-21a) in 36 meetings with Nashville’s Central Division rival.

Yak on Track: Trenin scored his third goal of the season in the first period against St. Louis. Having scored all three of his goals in his last four games, he is already one-fourth of the way to his season total of 12 goals in 77 games in 2022-23.

Tic-Tac-Vange: With three points (2g-1a) against St. Louis, Evangelista is now tied with Arizona’s Logan Cooley for the second-most points among all NHL rookies with 12 (3g-9a). All 12 of Evangelista's points have come in his last 14 games.

Mac Attack: With a secondary assist on Trenin’s first-period goal, Ryan McDonagh now has three points (3a) in two games since his return to the Preds lineup on Wednesday after missing the previous seven games due to a lower-body injury.

Rookie, Rewarded: Stastney scored the first goal of his NHL career against St. Louis, the same team he faced in his NHL debut on April 1, 2023. Stastney appeared in eight games for the Predators last season, recording his first two career points on April 6, 2023 vs. Carolina (2a). He started the 2023-24 season with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals and was recalled by the Predators on Nov. 14 when Tommy Novak was placed on IR with an upper-body injury.

Going Streaking: Smith, Gustav Nyquist and Philip Tomasino recorded one assist each and extended their point streaks to four, seven and four games, respectively.

Factor’s Return: O’Reilly tallied a power-play goal against his former team in his return to Enterprise Center for the first time since being traded away from the Blues last season. O’Reilly spent five seasons with the Blues, serving as team captain and winning the Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe and Selke Trophy in 2019. He recorded 269 points (97g-172a) in 327 games with the Blues from 2019-23; he had 10 points (12g-7a) in 40 games to begin the 2022-23 campaign before a trade to Toronto ended his five-year tenure with St. Louis.

THEY SAID IT

Evangelista on Nashville’s four-game win streak:

“It’s a way better feeling. Just showing up at the rink in times like that little slump that we were going through then versus now, it's night and day. We're having a ton of fun with it.”

O’Reilly on the video tribute he received from St. Louis during the game:

“It was such a special time here and it was such a nice thing for the Blues to do. I got a painting from them before the game as well. It’s just such a great organization with everything they've done for me. Coming here really changed my career around, and I can't thank the organization the staff and everyone for just being so great to me and embracing me. It was a pretty great welcome back.”

Stastney on the faith the coaching staff has shown in him:

“I think it definitely gives me some confidence, and they've been more than supportive. They're always there to tell me some advice and maybe get on me when I do something wrong, but also hype me up when I do something right. So it's just something that's really special, and I'm very fortunate and just hope to keep on learning as long as they want me to.”

Head Coach Andrew Brunette on his assessment of the win:

“I think we're really been focusing on the process. We left a lot of points on the board in the first part of the year and part of it was a little bit of puck luck. Part of it was we were beating ourselves. I think we're maturing a little bit as a group and understanding different different parts of the game and we really have to make sure we're extremely sharp. I thought tonight we did that for the most part.”

UP NEXT

The Predators return home to host the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday at Bridgestone Arena. The puck drops at 7 p.m. CT, and the game will be broadcast on Bally Sports South, 102.5 The Game and El Jefe Radio. Click here for tickets.