In Nashville, the Predators scored three first period goals and held on for a 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.
“It’s really cool, definitely,” Nashville’s Roman Josi said “I’ve been very fortunate to play here for so long (11 seasons), in this great city in front of our great fans, amazing organization. I’ve had some amazing teammates. Really fortunate to be playing with so many great players in the past and now. It’s definitely very special.”
The win snapped a four-game skid for Nashville.
Juuse Saros made 36 saves in the Nashville win.
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Mark Scheifele were the Jets strikers.
“We got exactly what we expected,” Jets coach Dave Lowry said. “We expected them to come out to be ready to play. This is a team 0-3-1 in their last [four] games. Their level of desperation, you could see it in their play. They had some urgency. They put pucks to the goal line. They did what we wanted to do.”
The Predators improved to 25-14-3.
“The last four games, we didn’t find ways to win the games,” Predators head coach John Hynes said. “But I really liked the mindset of the group. There wasn’t a lot of panic or finger-pointing. We lost different games in different ways, but it was all about solutions and just staying focused and making sure we understood what we needed to do better.”
Eeli Tolvanen, Mikael Granlund, and Ryan Johansen hit for the first period goals for Nashville.
Luke Kunin struck for a goal in the middle frame for the Predators to give them a 4-1 lead.
Scheifele scored in the third to make it 4-2.
“We knew they were going to take some penalties,” Scheifele said. “We needed to capitalize on those opportunities on the power play. Obviously, we got one on the 5-on-3, but it could have been a whole new game if we score early and change the tempo of the game.”
Tanner Jeannot iced the win with an empty-net goal for the 5-2 final.
“We got ourselves into some penalties in the second period, and then I thought in the third period, Winnipeg played real hard,” Hynes said. “We didn’t handle that as well as we needed to in the third period. But I think overall the big lesson in that was we weren’t too low. We were losing some games, but I just liked the mindset of our group. Just keep moving forward.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 18 saves for the Jets (17-13-6), w
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