Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault scored in the third period to power the Nashville Predators past the Winnipeg Jets by a 4-1 final on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result gives the Preds a victory over the NHL’s top team and points in five of their last seven outings overall.
Preds Captain Roman Josi also tallied twice on the night, and Juuse Saros made 23 saves for Nashville as they put forth one of their more satisfying efforts of the season.
“It feels good,” Stamkos said. “I thought that was a pretty good recipe of what we have to do and understand we’ve got to continue this. The story of this year has been efforts like this, and then we don't follow it up. So, let's follow it up and get on a little roll here.”
“I would say maybe our resiliency,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said of what impressed him about his group’s effort. “You're always weary coming home after a two-week road trip, and your first game back is always a little scary… I thought the group grabbed it and we learned from past experiences. And I really thought, especially in the second period, we really got to our game. Our second, our third period, I thought we did a lot of really good things.”
Midway through the opening frame, Marchessault found Josi at the left point, and Nashville’s captain placed a slap shot through a slew of traffic and into the twine to give the Preds a 1-0 lead.
The Predators then appeared to score again just seconds later when Alexandre Carrier deposited a rebound, but Winnipeg was successful on an offside challenge to take the goal off the board. However, multiple Preds players and their head coach remarked on how the club responded to that moment. At earlier points in the season, the Predators say that may have deflated the group, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday.
“I think it was a really good team effort,” Marchessault said. “[We] started right off the bat. We had a lot of good energy in all three periods. Even after the goal that was offside, we didn't stop pushing. We always wanted to keep battling and go get the next one. And I see it as a good 60-minute game tonight.”
Winnipeg evened the score in the second stanza when Adam Lowry jammed home a loose puck in the crease to get the Jets on the board, but that was as close as they got.
Stamkos scored what proved to be the game-winner on the power play when he one timed a deflected pass from the left circle past Eric Comrie and into the cage, and Marchessault followed that up with a marker of his own less than two minutes later to put things out of reach.
“Best game of the year,” Brunette said of Marchessault. “Give him a lot of credit, I really thought he's taking charge of that line. He showed great leadership… He's engaged and invested.”
Saros continued to turn the Jets aside, and then Josi added an empty-netter before the night was done to finish things off and send the home team off with two points.
“We talked about it before the game - it was a big game for us,” Josi said. “Obviously not a great road trip, and coming home, playing the best team in the League right now, it’s a huge game. And it was a big win for us. I thought it was a really good effort.”
Now, the Predators say, Monday’s contest against New Jersey will be all about following this effort up with another solid outing. As Stamkos reiterated, consecutive impressive showings haven’t come easy for Nashville, but they know that will need to change sooner than later.
“I think just realizing the situation that we're in, right?” Josi said. “Every game is huge. It's early in the season, but every game matters a lot for us. I think obviously we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole here. We [will] definitely enjoy this win tonight, but once tomorrow hits, we're going to New Jersey, playing another great team, and we need to keep building and playing better."
“Twelve o'clock tonight, it's a new day and I think it belongs in the past - you need to focus on your next game,” Marchessault said. “What can you do when you wake up tomorrow? What can you do to become better? I think it's about recovery, eating well and all that kind of good stuff. I think you just have to move on from it and focus on your next one.”
Notes:
Prior to Saturday’s game, the Preds recalled forward Fedor Svechkov from Milwaukee (AHL), and the center made his NHL debut while registering one hit in 7:34 of ice time.
“It was a hard game for him,” Brunette said of Svechkov. “I thought he was really good. Obviously, he was really nervous in the first period. In the situation we're in, it's hard to be real patient with him, but I thought he came in the second period, and when he got out there, he looked really good. I think he's a really smart player. I’d like to play him more, but we're a little bit in dire straits here for our season, so I’d like to see him a little bit more.”
Predators forward Michael McCarron did not play on Saturday and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Forwards Juuso Parssinen and Philip Tomasino were also scratched for Nashville. Defenseman Adam Wilsby was reassigned to Milwaukee on Saturday morning.
Per NHL PR, Roman Josi scored his 24th career game-opening goal and tied Scott Hartnell for the sixth-most in Predators history. The only players with more are Filip Forsberg (46), Craig Smith (44), David Legwand (43), Martin Erat (29) and Shea Weber (28).
Prior to the game, the Preds celebrated former Captain Shea Weber and former General Manager David Poile after they were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Poile and Weber participated in a ceremonial puck drop, and later, the Predators announced Weber and former goaltender Pekka Rinne will join Poile as the first inductees into the Preds Golden Hall, set to take place in January.
Nashville will now head on the road for a single game in New Jersey on Monday night before returning home to host the Flyers one night before Thanksgiving.
