Fedor Svechkov came in clutch with his first NHL goal, but the Nashville Predators suffered their third consecutive 3-2 overtime loss against the Minnesota Wild Saturday at Xcel Energy Center.
Predators goaltender Juuse Saros, who also started the first game of Nashville’s back-to-back set Friday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, made 25 saves in the loss. The Predators’ offensive woes continued, as the loss marked the 14th game this season in which Nashville scored two goals or fewer. With the loss, Nashville now falls to 7-12-6 on the season.
How the Predators lined up vs. Minnesota
Forsberg – O’Reilly – Nyquist
Stamkos – Novak – Marchessault
Jankowski – Svechkov – Evangelista
L’Heureux – Sissons – Smith
Josi – Carrier
Skjei – Blankenburg
Wilsby – Schenn
Saros
Annunen
Extra: Del Gaizo, Pärssinen, McCarron, Lauzon*
*Forward Michael McCarron missed his fifth consecutive game since being placed on Injured Reserve with an upper-body injury. Jeremy Lauzon is also week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
Justus Annunen, acquired from the Colorado Avalanche Saturday morning as part of a trade for Scott Wedgewood, made it to Minnesota in time to back up Saros for the game.
Related: Predators, Avalanche Swap Goaltenders as Scott Wedgewood Heads to Colorado
Game Summary
It took nearly 19 minutes and a barrage of shots from the Wild, but defenseman Declan Chisholm got Minnesota on the board with first goal of the season. Right off the draw, he launched a shot that beat Saros and hit both goal posts on its way into the net to make it 1-0.
Svechkov had an answer less than a minute later, tying the score with his first NHL goal. Roman Josi set up the tic-tac-toe play from the blue line by feeding the puck to Luke Evangelista, who made a nice cross-ice pass to set up Svechkov for a one-timer from the face-off circle to tie the game at 1-1 heading into the first intermission.
The Predators got an early power-play opportunity less than two minutes the second period when former Predators forward Yakov Trenin was called for tripping against Saros. On the man advantage, Ryan O’Reilly made a nice deflection in front of the net off a Steven Stamkos pass to give the Predators a 2-1 lead.
The Wild tied things up with a power-play goal of their own at 8:24 of the period after Evangelista went to the box for hooking against Marco Rossi. Kirill Kaprizov made a deflection off of Rossi’s shot to beat Saros and once again head into the intermission with the score tied.
A scoreless third period sent the Predators to overtime for a third straight game after losing each their previous two contests to the Philadelphia Flyers and Tampa Bay, respectively, by a final score of 3-2 in overtime. Nashville would go on to suffer the same fate against the Wild, as Jared Spurgeon buried Kaprizov’s feed 58 seconds into OT for the 3-2 final.
Key Takeaways
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With assists on both Svechkov’s and O’Reilly’s goals, Josi extended his point streak to five games. He has seven points (5 goals, 3 assists) in that span. According to NHL PR, Josi has recorded 108 career multi-assist games – the second most among all defensemen since making his NHL debut in 2011-12 and behind only Erik Karlsson of the Pittsburgh Penguins (123).
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Rookie defenseman Adam Wilsby’s final shift of the second period lasted 3:43. The Wild managed just one shot on goal during that span.
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Less than 90 seconds into the game, defenseman Luke Schenn dropped gloves with Marcus Foligno for his third fight of the season; he previously fought Tanner Jeannot of the Los Angeles Kings and Mark Kastelic of the Boston Bruins.
Up Next
The Predators begin a three-game Canadian road trip Wednesday with a visit to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The puck drops at 6:30 p.m. CT, and the game will be broadcast regionally on FanDuel Sports Network South and on ESPN+ for out-of-market customers in the United States.
Visit The Hockey News Nashville Predators team site to stay updated on the latest news, game day coverage, player features, podcasts and more.
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