Stamkos, Josi lift Predators past Blues for fourth straight win

NASHVILLE -- Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist when the Nashville Predators extended their winning streak to four games with a 3-1 victory against the St. Louis Blues at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday.

Ross Colton and Nick Perbix scored, and Roman Josi had two assists for the Predators (8-4-5). Juuse Saros made 25 saves.

"(Confidence) is hard to get and easy to lose sometimes," Stamkos said. "When you have it, you just try to keep that snowball rolling. It's contagious. You can tell in the room. … Everyone is doing their job. Everyone has a role … and that's what really good teams have. We feel we're a good team."

Jimmy Snuggerud scored, and Joel Hofer made 26 saves for the Blues (7-8-2), who lost their third straight (0-2-1).

Blues coach Jim Montgomery said he was not pleased by how his team's effort tailed off after the opening 20 minutes. St. Louis had six shots on goal in the second period.

"People can say it's different things that we're not doing, but it's always something different," Montgomery said. "We need to be better. We need to be more committed to who we are, and we need to work at a harder rate more consistently."

Snuggerud's power-play goal gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 13:07 of the first period. Philip Broberg received a pass at the point from Robert Thomas and sent the puck to the top of the left circle, where Snuggerud beat Saros with a snap shot.

Stamkos answered on the man-advantage to tie it 1-1 at 16:07. He wristed a rebound from the left side into the open net with Hofer dealing with traffic in front of the crease. It was his 248th career power-play goal to pass Luc Robitaille for sole possession of fifth in NHL history.

"Special teams (are) big," Stamkos said. "When we have the penalty kill that we have (88.5 percent) and the power play like we have (29.8 percent), it's going to help us win games. That was probably one of the easier (goals) tonight. You joke that sometimes you've just got to know where to stand."

Colton put the Predators ahead 2-1 at 9:02 of the second period. After being denied on a tip-in attempt 24 seconds earlier, he collected a feed in the high slot from Jack Drury and used a screen from Adam Edstrom to beat Hofer.

"I think they're helping us create an identity for our group," Brunette said of the Colton-Drury-Edstrom line. "I think the energy they bring, the pace they play at and their competitiveness on pucks really kind of leaks through our whole lineup. They set the tone most nights. They had a big goal for us tonight, but also, at different momentum parts of the game, I thought they grabbed it and got us back to the game we needed to play."

Perbix scored an empty-net goal with 1:29 remaining for the 3-1 final.

"(Nashville) got the lead, and they were flipping pucks out constantly and packing it in the D-zone," Blues forward Dylan Holloway said. "We good shifts and good chances. The momentum was coming for us, but it was just too little, too late. We can't wait until that late in the game to have a push."

The Predators debuted their Hometown Remix uniforms, donning navy blue jerseys for the first time since their NHL Stadium Series game on Feb. 26, 2022. Nashville wore a specialty patch and nameplate during warmups in honor of late singer Dolly Parton and auctioned off those jerseys to raise funds for Parton's charity, Imagination Library.

"That was a nice touch with 'Dolly' on the back in warmups," Colton said. "Super cool jerseys. Some around the league are a little different, but I think ours are pretty special. It's a nice tribute to Nashville."

NOTES: Stamkos scored his 130th career game-tying goal to pass Jaromir Jagr for fifth in NHL history behind Alex Ovechkin (155), Wayne Gretzky (139), Dave Andreychuk (137) and Joe Sakic (132). … Josi moved within one point of 800 and becoming the first Switzerland-born player and the fifth defenseman born outside North America to reach the milestone. … Nashville forward Jonathan Marchessault (lower body) did not play for the third straight game.