Roman Josi had a goal and three assists, Ryan Johansen tallied twice and goaltender Connor Ingram won his NHL debut as the Nashville Predators defeated the Minnesota Wild 5-2 Sunday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
Filip Forsberg added a goal and an assist, Tanner Jeannot also scored and Matt Duchene had three assists for the Predators, who posted their first road victory of the season.
Ingram, a 24-year-old who split last season between the American Hockey League’s Chicago Wolves and Sweden, made 33 saves.
Nick Bjugstad and Nico Sturm scored for the Wild, who saw their season-opening four-game winning streak come to an end. Goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, making his first start of the season, stopped 24 of 29 shots.
The Predators, coming off a 6-4 loss in Winnipeg the previous day, charged to a 3-0 lead in the first period.
Josi, the 2020 Norris Trophy winner as the NHL’s top defenseman, opened the scoring with a power-play goal just 3:45 in, after Kahkonen allowed a long rebound on a shot by Duchene.
Johansen made it 2-0 on the power play at 5:54, knocking his own rebound into the net.
Josi set up Johansen at 12:25 of the first, taking the puck at the point, spinning past a defender and feeding a wide-open Johansen for a one-timer from between the top of the faceoff circles.
Bjugstad got the Wild on the board at 11:30 of the second, taking a pass off the boards from Jon Merrill and skating down the right wing before burying a shot just inside the far post.
Josi hit a slap shot from the point at 13:15, and it careened off Forsberg’s leg and past Kahkonen to restore Nashville’s three-goal advantage. The goal was first credited to Josi, but later changed to Forsberg.
Jeannot took a pass from Yakov Trenin and batted it out of midair and into the net to give the Predators a 5-1 lead at 18:35 of the second.
Sturm scored after a Brandon Duhaime shot squirted through Ingram’s pads and stopped just shy of the goal line, with Sturm tapping it home with three seconds left in the second to make it 5-2.
–Field Level Media
