In Nashville, Sebastian Aho stayed hot for the Carolina Hurricanes and scored his 1-th goal in a 10-game point streak and led the Canes to a 4-1 win over the Predators.
“There wasn’t really much letdown,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “Overall, everyone was moving their feet, everyone was working. We knew it was going to be a tough game. Obviously, it’s a tough building to come in and play against a team that’s desperate as well. Really love the effort from everyone. It was a good, complete game.”
Petr Mrazek made 28 saves in the win.
“I thought from the outset our mentality was good,” Carolina’s Justin Williams said. “Sometimes you have a good sense of the dressing room and where it is. It’s time to get this going in the right direction. After the second period we said, ‘We don’t have to score another goal. So let’s just shut it down and give them nothing.’ That’s the way you’ve got to win. It’s not the first 20 games right now, it’s the last 20.”
Ryan Johansen was the lone goal scorer for the Canes.
“It wasn’t good enough,” Johansen said. “We need to find ways to get points every game right now. Disappointed tonight, but in saying that, we’ve got to look at things and make sure we’re ready for Chicago (on Friday).”
Staal, Andrei Svechnikov and Nino Niederreiter also scored for Carolina.
“I mean, we’re here for competition, right?” Williams said. “We’re not here just to play. We’re here to compete. The table is set and the stage is set for the last 20 games to have a race, and we’ve just got to win our games. I don’t care that we’re in the best division in hockey with the most points, just win our games and we’ll be fine.”
[WATCH: All Hurricanes vs. Predators highlights]
Juuse Saros made 26 saves in the loss.
“I thought that we played slow tonight,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “We didn’t play fast. Particularly, I thought our offensive intensity tonight was not close to where it needed to be. I thought our decisions on zone entries when they had numbers back, we were trying to make plays and they would knock it down and go back the other way, so you don’t set yourself up to be able to play in the offensive zone.”
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