Game Recap: Predators vs Sharks 2/24

SAN JOSE -- Kiefer Sherwood scored twice for the Nashville Predators in a 4-2 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Saturday.

"The most important thing is getting the win right now," Sherwood said. "There are ups and downs, but we stuck to our script. It’s not always going to be the best start with all these games coming in, but we finished strong and that's what matters."

Gustav Nyquist had a goal and an assist, and Juuse Saros made 23 saves for the Predators (31-25-2), who have won four straight.

"I liked the way we closed the game out," Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. "It was a hard game. We knew they'd be hungry and excited. They didn’t play for a few days. I thought they had a lot of energy and gave us a pretty good push. I liked our second period, third didn’t start off the way we really wanted but I thought we got into our game and I liked how we closed it out."

Mikael Granlund and Filip Zadina scored, and Kaapo Kahkonen made 31 saves for the Sharks (15-36-5), who have lost three straight.

"It was frustrating tonight because we had some really good stretches and then we had some really tough ones, and the one thing we've got to do is clean up our bad stretches," Sharks coach David Quinn said. "They can't be as bad as they've been. But we did a lot of good things against a good team. That's a good team. They're big, they're fast, they have a great goalie."

Sherwood put Nashville ahead 1-0 at 10:14 of the first period when Michael McCarron's pass from behind the net found him for a one-timer at the bottom of the right circle.

Filip Forsberg’s power-play goal pushed it to 2-0 at 18:27 of the second period with a wrist shot through traffic from the high slot.

Granlund cut it to 2-1 at 1:10 of the third period with a wrist shot from below the right circle.

"I think in the second period, we weren't as good," Granlund said. "But in the first and the third we were playing hard. There are some breakdowns we need to clean up, but it was a pretty good effort. Both goalies were really good tonight."

Sherwood made it 3-1 at 3:40 when he picked up a loose puck at center ice, skated around defenseman Henry Thrun along the right-side boards and beat Kahkonen with a wrist shot from the right circle on a breakaway.

"I made a bad read on it," Thrun said. "I was trying to play aggressive [since we were] down a goal and was kind of half in half out, and at the end of the day that does you no good. Just had one misstep, and in the NHL that's a telltale sign that it's going to get by you."

Zadina made it 3-2 at 9:34, putting in the rebound of Jan Rutta’s wraparound attempt below the right circle.

"It just bounced right on my stick and it went in," Zadina said. "We need those goals to get us going in a game and help us win."

Nyquist scored an empty-net goal for the 4-2 final at 19:48.

"We've got a little mojo in our step, which is good," Sherwood said. "We’re finding ways to win and every night someone else is contributing. So, it's a good mark of a good team."

NOTES: Forsberg’s goal was his 567th career point, passing David Legwand for second on Nashville’s all-time points list... Saros got his eighth straight victory against the Sharks, the third-longest active winning streak against San Jose. He has a 0.99 goals-against average, .962 save percentage and two shutouts.