The Nashville Predators received goals from five different skaters, and Pekka Rinne made 33 saves as Nashville extended their home point streak to seven games by defeating the Dallas Stars 5-2 on Wednesday night.
With the victory, the Preds improved to 7-1-1 at Bridgestone Arena – and 9-7-3 overall – giving them points in nine of their last 11 games.
“We struggled a little bit in the start, but we’re starting to find our identity and figure out how we have to play to be successful,” Filip Forsberg said. “And the points are coming as well.”
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, P.K. Subban decided to send a gift to Filip Forsberg. Subban’s laser of a pass from the point went to No. 9 in Gold deep in the Dallas zone, and Forsberg somehow found space between the skate of Kari Lehtonen and the post for his second of the season and the all-important first goal of the game.
The helper extended Subban’s point streak to four games (2g-4a), and gave Forsberg his second goal of the season on his way to adding two points to his team-leading 15 overall.
“He has proven himself to be one of the best defensemen in the League, and that’s the type of play he can make,” Forsberg said of Subban. “Whenever you’re out there, you have to expect the unexpected I guess and just be ready for anything.”
“Fil’s a special player,” Subban said. “His skill and talents are shoulders above a lot of guys in this League. Whenever he’s on the ice, you just try to get him the puck in those scoring areas, and you know he’s going to do something with it… It was an easy play for me, but that looked like a tough goal to finish, but he finished it, and I’m not surprised he did.”
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the Preds on Wednesday night, including a second period that saw them allow 22 shots on goal in the 20-minute frame. But Nashville Head Coach Peter Laviolette wasn’t about to panic, especially with his team leading 2-0 after 40, and three more goals in the third period helped to seal it for his club.
No matter what it takes, the Preds have been finding ways to end up in the win column more often than not as of late, and Wednesday’s victory over Dallas – a key Central Division win – makes it that much sweeter.
“I think we had a rocky start,” Subban said. “It wasn’t bad by any means, but we weren’t playing our hockey and our game the way we wanted to play. As the game went on we got an early goal, which helped, which built our confidence. We knew, even though after the first period, we weren’t playing our best, we were up 1-0 and we just tried to build off of that. I think we had moments where we controlled the game well, but they played a really good game as well. I think the difference today was Peks, he played phenomenal. He stood on his head and made some big saves for us.”
There were a number of notables for the Preds on Wednesday night, including a pair of 200s. With an assist on Ryan Johansen’s goal, James Neal recorded his 200th career helper. Not to be outdone, Roman Josi’s assist on Neal’s empty-net tally was his 200th point in the NHL.
The Preds also got goals from five different players – Forsberg, Mike Fisher, Johansen, Craig Smith and Neal, including a couple who were looking to get back on the scoresheet. Johansen’s goal was his first in 10 games, the first in nine for Smith and the first in 11 for Fisher.
Nashville finishes their three-game home stand on Friday evening when they host the Winnipeg Jets for a 5 p.m. puck drop. Â Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast as part of the Nashville Predators Radio Network.
