In St Paul, Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi each hit for a double on Sunday night as the Nashville Predators tracked down the Minnesota Wild in a 6-2 win.
“The best defenseman in the game,” Nashville coach John Hynes said of Josi. ”I’m not so sure that there’s a player that impacts their team and their organization the way that Roman does.”
Nashville improved to 34-21-4.
“I thought we were pretty happy with the way we played,” Nashville’s Nick Cousins (goal) said. “I thought we carried the majority of the play. We’re a resilient group. I thought coming in here today, our focus was just to get the result, and I thought we did that.
“I thought all four lines fit really well for us, I thought [Rittich] played great and made saves when he had to, so it was a big one to win.”
David Rittich made 26 saves in the Nashville win.
The Wild have lost four of their last six matches are now in a tie for third in the Central Division.
Matt Boldy and Jordan Greenway scored for the Wild.
“It’s tough when you get some momentum, you get a goal, whatever, kill a penalty, and for them to come down and you give it back to them like that, it just kills you. It drains it,” Greenway said. “We’ve got to find a way to just continue to keep our foot on the gas.”
The Wild dropped to 34-20-4.
“Filip, at least in my time with him, he’s an extremely talented player,” Hynes said. “You can see the shot, the hands, his ability to make plays. You know, one of the things I think that that should be really appreciated about him this year is just the consistency level and reliability in his game. He’s a big, strong, powerful forward when he’s playing his best hockey. He’s got a great work ethic, he’s physical. He uses all of his attributes: his size, his speed, his vision, his shot, to his advantage.
“And that’s what happens when you’re a really good player and you play the game the right way, you set yourself up to be able to access your skill, and I think that’s been great to see from him and it’s a reason why he’s having a great year.”
Philip Tomasino added a single marker for the Preds.
“It was a really good game against a really good team,” Josi said. “I thought it was a great team effort tonight.”
Kaapo Kahkonen made 19 saves in the Wild loss.
“Are we disappointed? Yeah, sure we are. It’s a big game,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “We thought we’d been playing right. We’d been trending the right way. We just ran into a team that’s playing extremely well.”
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