The Nashville Predators trailed 0-2 on home ice before rallying for five unanswered goals to claim the Central Division top spot with the St Louis Blues applying as much pressure as they could.
“It’s been up and down throughout the year,” Nashville forward Filip Forsberg said. “Obviously, you look back a month, we were looking up on, especially [the] Winnipeg [Jets]. We’ve just been grinding hard, and I think we earned it.”
The Preds took the title by a point over the Blues, who finished second.
“I think tonight was really good,” Roman Josi said. “I thought it was a really good game against a good team. Obviously, we have a big rivalry against the Blackhawks. I’m sure they wanted to win in here, but I liked our game for 60 minutes.”
Brendan Perlini and Drake Caggiula staked the Hawks to the 2-0 lead.
“We’ve got to get better,” Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “We know we’ve got to get better. There’s an urgency to improve because we don’t like the position we’re in. We want to be starting playoffs in a few days, and we’re not. So there’s a lot of work to do, and we’ll do it.”
Dante Fabbro started the Nashville rally, and Forsberg, Viktor Arvidsson,g
“I’m really proud of our guys just for how hard they competed, how hard they worked for it,” Nashville head coach Peter Laviolette said. “They should be proud too. We wake up tomorrow and it’s the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so it’s a whole different bird. But I’ve said this a couple of times: You can’t play the Stanley Cup Playoffs in December. You can’t even play them today. You can only play what’s dealt to you, and that’s the regular season. And I thought our guys were incredible tonight.”
Colton Sissons added an empty-net goal and Nick Bonino scored with under a minute left in the game.
[WATCH:Â All Blackhawks vs. Predators highlights]
Cam Ward made 45 saves in the loss.
“It’s definitely positive that we started to play better, but at the same time, it’s frustrating. It’s not where we want to be, where a lot of us in here feel like we should be,” the Blackhawks’ Duncan Keith said after the loss.
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