Roman Josi scored two third-period goals as the Nashville Predators extended their point streak to 14 games with a 4-1 victory over the host Seattle Kraken on Saturday night.
Tommy Novak and Filip Forsberg also scored, the latter an empty-netter with 1:20 remaining. Mark Jankowski and Ryan McDonagh each had a pair of assists for Nashville.
Goaltender Juuse Saros made 23 saves as the Predators allowed two or fewer goals for the 11th time during their 12-0-2 run that has vaulted them to the top of the Western Conference’s wild-card race.
Andre Burakovsky scored for Seattle, which dropped to 0-3-1 on its five-game homestand. Philipp Grubauer stopped 26 of 29 shots.
After the Kraken tied the score at 1-1 early in the third, Josi restored Nashville’s lead on the power play at 3:59. Grubauer made a strong save on Forsberg’s close-range shot but Josi collected the rebound low in the right faceoff circle and lifted a shot into the upper right corner.
Josi scored again on a blast from the blue line at 9:03 of the period, beating a screened Grubauer.
Trailing 1-0 after two periods, the Kraken tied it with a man advantage at 1:24 of the third. Rookie defenseman Ryker Evans sent a cross-ice pass to Burakovsky for a one-timer from just outside the right faceoff dot into the upper near corner of the net. It was the oft-injured Burakovsky’s fourth goal of the season — his third in the past five games.
The Predators opened the scoring at 15:36 of the first period on an odd-man rush while Burakovsky skated gingerly to the bench after taking a knee-on-knee hit. The Predators got the puck to Novak deep on the right wing and he attempted a pass across the top of the crease to teammate Luke Evangelista, but the puck deflected off the skate of Kraken defenseman Justin Schultz and into the net.
Seattle’s top defenseman, Vince Dunn, missed his fifth consecutive game with an upper-body injury.
–Field Level Media
