In Chicago, Juuse Saros made 29 saves and the Nashville Predators defeated the Blackhawks, 3-1, on Saturday.
Pius Suter scored the Hawks only goals when he got them within 2-1 of Nashville.
“[The Predators] were skating, they were working extremely hard, [and] they were aggressive all over the ice,” Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “They beat us to a lot of loose pucks. They kind of beat us at our own game tonight.”
Nashville has won four straight and improved to 17-17-1.
Ryan Johansen received and Rocco Grimaldi staked the Preds to a 2-0 lead.
“I thought [Ryan] Johansen’s line did respond,” Predators head coach John Hynes said. “I thought Johansen was really good. He was moving his feet, and that’s the thing: When [he’s] not a willing skater, he’s not as effective as he can be. Tonight, he was moving his feet. [Viktor] Arvidsson came in and brought some energy to the line, and [Eeli] Tolvanen had a good response too. So that was nice.”
Mikael Granlund scored 51 seconds into the third period to take the wind out of the Chicago sails.
“We’re tracking pucks, causing turnovers, and that’s how we get a lot of those chances,” Granlund said. “We’re really tight as a unit all the time. We’ve been getting a lot of good chances and obviously trying to put the other team on their heels.”
Kirby Dach made his season debut after an injury in Junior Championships sidelined him.
“It felt good,” Dach said. “Obviously, there’s still some things that I’d like to get better at, but that doesn’t really include what’s going on with my wrist and injury-wise. I felt good out there. It’s good to kind of get back into the swing of things. I think there’s still another level that I can take my game to.”
Kevin Lankinen made 31 saves in the loss.
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