Filip Forsberg broke through with his first goal of the season and added an assist as the Nashville Predators closed their homestand with a 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday. Nashville found a cleaner, more direct game in the third period, scoring twice in the opening 8:14 to put away its first victory in four outings.
Key takeaways
- The Predators improved to 3-2-3 and halted a three-game slide that included one regulation loss and two overtime or shootout defeats.
- Jonathan Marchessault scored on a penalty shot after Jordan Binnington was penalized for throwing his stick during a Nashville power play.
- Adam Edstrom supplied a short-handed goal, while Ryan O’Reilly and Jack Drury scored in the third period.
- Juuse Saros turned aside 24 shots for Nashville; Binnington made 19 saves for St. Louis.
- Philip Broberg scored his first goal of the season, and Jimmy Snuggerud had a power-play marker for the Blues.
Nashville takes control after uneven opening 40 minutes
St. Louis opened the scoring at 6:21 of the first period. Following a Predators giveaway along the right-side boards, Mason McTavish found Broberg with room through the middle, and the defenseman drove into the slot before beating Saros high on the glove side.
Broberg credited McTavish for creating the chance. “He made a great play and I got some open space,” he said. “Nice to see it go in.”
Nashville answered at 8:40 in unusual fashion. Marchessault was stopped at the net during a power play, but Binnington threw his stick and was assessed a penalty shot rather than leaving the Predators with a two-man advantage. Marchessault went through the pads with a wrist shot to tie the game 1-1.
“Fil made a good play to me there at the net,” Marchessault said. “I knew he was not allowed to do that. I didn’t know it was going to be a penalty shot. I thought it would be a 5-on-3, but I was happy about it, especially for it to be me taking it.”
Forsberg put Nashville in front at 12:22 of the opening period. Steven Stamkos missed on a backhand chance, but Forsberg collected the loose puck and wrapped it inside the left post before Binnington could seal it with his right skate.
It was a welcome first marker of the year for Forsberg, who said chances had been there even before the goal arrived. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time here, it comes and it goes,” he said. “It was a big goal at the time. It’s going to go in at some point.”
Edstrom pushed the lead to 3-1 at 7:05 of the second, finishing short-handed from the front of the net after a feed from Roman Josi. The Blues responded 31 seconds later when Jake Neighbours threaded a pass across the crease to Snuggerud, who scored from beside the net on the power play.
Snuggerud said the quick response kept St. Louis within reach after allowing the short-handed strike. “Shorty goals from the other team aren’t really nice,” he said. “It can bring a bench down, but I thought we turned it around quickly. That was a big goal in a big part of the game.”
The Blues believed they carried much of the play over the first two periods, but Nashville’s third-period push changed the feel of the night. O’Reilly followed his own rebound and tucked the puck just inside the left post at 2:50 to make it 4-2. Drury then scored his first goal as a Predator at 8:14, with Josi’s pass from the left side deflecting off Drury’s skate at the back post.
Drury was playing his eighth game for Nashville after arriving in a June 24 trade with the Colorado Avalanche. Josi finished with two assists, matching Stamkos and Adam Wilsby for two helpers apiece.
Third-period detail gives Predators a needed lift
Forsberg said Nashville simplified after turnovers and loose puck management made the first two periods difficult. “The third period we got to our game, started playing more simple with the puck,” he said. “The first two periods, a lot of turnovers, and a team like that is going to get what they want, free offense. But the third period was really solid.”
Predators coach Andrew Brunette saw the same turn, praising his group for recovering after an opening stretch that did not fit the intended game plan. He noted that St. Louis is among the League’s quickest clubs out of the gate and said Nashville needed big saves from Saros, timely penalty killing and better leadership to regain control.
“That’s what good teams do in the third period even though the first two weren’t great,” Brunette said. “It speaks to the leadership that they’re able to grab it.”
The win gave Nashville a 1-1-1 mark on its three-game homestand before a demanding road portion of the schedule. Brunette said the club will have a few days to reset before returning to work.
For St. Louis, the defeat left the Blues at 3-4-1 and ended their three-game trip with consecutive losses. Coach Jim Montgomery liked his club’s start and a five-minute push after Nashville moved ahead, but pointed to the final period as the deciding stretch.
“The third period’s the period that cost us,” Montgomery said. He added that St. Louis made poor decisions away from the puck that produced odd-man looks against and said the group must play with more patience and maturity.
Snuggerud agreed that the Blues let a winnable game get away. “I honestly thought we had a really good first and second,” he said. “Our third period obviously needs to be better and our execution level just needs to be better because we were in that game and the puck wasn’t going in. It turned on us quick.”
Forsberg’s production against St. Louis continued to stand out: he now has 54 points, split evenly between 27 goals and 27 assists, in 47 career games against the Blues. He has six goals and two assists over his past five meetings with them. Stamkos owns 32 points in 29 career games versus St. Louis.
Elsewhere in the Blues notebook, defenseman Brandon Carlo played his 700th NHL game and logged 12:29 while finishing minus-1. McTavish extended his point streak to six games with the assist on Broberg’s goal, giving him four goals and four assists during that run. Pavel Buchnevich returned after missing Thursday’s loss at Minnesota for the birth of his child, skating 18:32 and recording one shot on goal.
