Nashville maintain pressure in wild card chase

In Nashville, the Predators’ Juuse Saros made 28 saves in a 4-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.

The Predators are tied with the Dallas Stars for the first wild card spot in the Western Conference.

The Vegas Golden Knights lost to the Edmonton Oilers, 4-0, on Saturday.

“I think we were engaged in the game the way we needed to (be),” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “We were ready to start the game on time. I think it was more to the identity that we want to be able to play with from a readiness standpoint and from a style of game standpoint.

“Coming off the Edmonton game, I think this was a step in the right direction. We’re going to have to build on that going into [Sunday’s] game against St. Louis.”

The Blackhawks have won once in their last 10 games.

Patrick Kane had a goal in the loss.

“We were just sloppy,” Kane said. “Even when we got the puck back, we gave it away too easy. They’re a hard forechecking team. I think Hynes deserves a lot of credit for the way they play. You look at their roster and you think it’s a beatable team, but they just play so hard, and he obviously enforces that. So he deserves a lot of credit.”

After Eeli Tolvanen put the Preds up, 1-0, Kane  and Dominik Kubalik scored for the Hawks to give them a 2-1 lead.

Roman Josi tied the game, 2-2, for Nashville.

“Obviously, we didn’t score a lot of goals the last couple games,” Josi said. “We didn’t like our game against Edmonton. We knew if we played our style, played the right way, we were going to get some goals and we did tonight. Big win for us.”

Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund  put the Predators up 4-2.

“It was a much better effort,” Granlund said. “This time of year, the only thing you really care about is those two points and we found a way. It was such a poor effort last game, so it was good to get the correction and step up for this one.”

Riley Stillman had a goal for Chicago to cut the advantage to 4-3.

Kevin Lankinen made 30 saves in the Chicago loss.