In Nashville, the Predators post season hopes took a major hit on Saturday when the Seattle Kraken hit them with a 7-2 decision.
Eeli Tolvanen returned to Nashville with Seattle and hit for a double in the win.
“He’s been awesome ever since he got here,” Kraken forward Matty Beniers said. “He’s a great guy, so it’s even better to see him come back here and just do what he does best, which is scoring goals. He’s an absolute threat. He’s awesome, so I’m so happy for him to get those tonight. He’s been playing great.”
Seattle improved to 40-24-8.
“We wanted to challenge ourselves to be a little bit better than we were the other day (in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Predators on Thursday),” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Just elevate a little bit in some of the competitive areas of the game. We had a really good response.”
Philipp Grubauer made 14 saves in the Kraken win.
Seattle is just two points back of the third place Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division race.
“I feel like the last couple of games we struggled a little bit getting shots on net and getting scoring chances,” Tolvanen said. “Today we did a pretty good job on the power play. We got shots through and we got some traffic, too.”
Nashville kept it close through two plus period of play.
Tyson Barrie had a goal for the Preds, and Matt Duchene scored early in the third period to get Nashville within one at 3-2.
“They were the better team from right off the start,” Predators coach John Hynes said. “They just looked faster, more competitive on the puck. … Right from the get-go, you can see when we’re going — the energy, the compete level, the detail which we play with — and we didn’t have that. … So it was a tough night for us.”
The Predators dropped to 36-27-8 and five points back of the Winnipeg Jets who lost to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
After Duchene scored in the third, the Kraken reeled off four straight.
Adam Larsson scored to give the Kraken a two-goal lead at 4-2, and Matty Beniers pushed the lead to 5-2.
“I think you see how they got their goals, there was a lot of odd-mans (rushes) and mistakes, things you’ve just got to cut out of your game,” Barrie said. “But I think we just kind of chased it all night from early. That’s a team that knows how to play defense. They work hard and you don’t want to be chasing against them all night.”
Jared McCann and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored for the 7-2 final.
Daniel Sprong and Tolvanen (power play) scored in the first period to give the Kraken a 2-0 lead.
In the middle frame, Barrie closed the gap for Nashville to 2-1, but Tolvanen hit for his double to send the game to third period with the Kraken up, 3-1.
“Maybe the biggest play of the game was the 3-1 goal,” Hakstol said. “At that point in time, to be able to extend the lead back to a two-goal lead, that was a big one for us. We’ve come to count on [Tolvanen].”
Juuse Saros made 32 saves in the Nashville loss.
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