In Newark Tuesday night, the Nashville’s Predator’s James Neal scored two goals with 92 seconds as the Preds handed the New Jersey Devils their seventh straight, 5-1.
“I think we played a solid all the way through the game,” said Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson, who had three assists. “We made good decisions and we played really well. We kept the puck behind them, forechecked, and made them turn it over.”
Juuse Saros made 27 to get the win for Nashville.
James Neal scored twice in first period to lead Preds – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“I’ve been many times close to a shutout, so you don’t get disappointed in it anymore because the win is most important,” Saros said.
Nashville was on a long-distance roadie with only two games on the schedule but they won both and improved to 15-12-5.
“It’s great for our confidence,” said Neal, who leads the Predators with 14 goals. “It’s something we’ve talked about all year, to be better on the road, and I think you have to be if you want to find yourself in a playoff spot. The year goes by quick, so you have to jump on these points when they really matter and that’s now, so it’s a great road win.”
The Predators built a 5-0 lead off the Neal goals and markers from Mattias Ekholm, Filip Forsberg and Ryan Johansen.
“It was probably our cleanest, strongest road win of the year,” Nashville head coach Peter Laviolette
WATCH: All Predators vs. Devils highlights
Cory Schneider took the loss on 27 saves and has yielded 21 goals in his last five starts.
“Sometimes it’s just execution, from me on out,” he said. “I have to execute on saves and we have to execute in making plays with the puck and not give them life. Obviously, that was an issue tonight.”
The Devils are 0-6-1 in their last seven games and dropped to 12-13-7.
“In this business, every game you want to be able to find a way to be able win. You go through different situations; right now, we are in one where we’re not doing the things to give ourselves a chance to win a game,” Devils head coach John Hynes said after his club lost its seventh straight. “Last couple of games we gave ourselves a chance to win and didn’t. It’s solving that riddle of collectively putting our game back together where it needs to be.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.