Bruins Fall to Predators, 6-3, in Nashville

NASHVILLE -- Matthew Wood scored twice, and Filip Forsberg had a goal and two assists for the Nashville Predators in a 6-3 win against the Boston Bruins at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday.

Steven Stamkos had two assists for the Predators (28-26-8), who scored four times in the second period and stopped a three-game slide (0-2-1). Juuse Saros made 20 saves.

Charlie McAvoy and Viktor Arvidsson each had a goal and an assist, and Pavel Zacha had two assists for the Bruins (34-22-5). Joonas Korpisalo made 23 saves.

“Just too slow to start,” Boston forward Morgan Geekie said. “Got away from our game. I think we kind of played into their strengths a little bit, and they took advantage of it. That seems to be the way things go on the road, and it’s tough to see points slip away like that.”

Nicolas Hague gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 13:53 of the first period on a one-timer from the point.

Wood made it 2-0 at 1:24 of the second with a short-handed goal. Nick Perbix intercepted a pass in the defensive zone, led the rush and passed back to Wood, who had just left the penalty box. He scored with a one-timer from the inside edge of the left face-off circle.

Geekie cut it to 2-1 at 3:30 with a power-play goal. He scored on a one-timer from above the left circle off a pass from McAvoy for his NHL career-high 34th goal of the season.

“Our power play has struggled the last couple games, and it was nice to see one go in,” Geekie said. “I don’t know, we just got away from our game too much. It’s tough to find momentum and things when you know you’re not doing them the best way that you can. It’s just one of those games where we got away too quickly, didn’t get back.”

Erik Haula gave the Predators a 3-1 lead at 10:18 by redirecting a shot from Brady Skjei, and Forsberg made it 4-1 on the power play at 12:37 with a wrist shot from the top of the slot off a pass from Stamkos.

Wood pushed it to 5-1 at 14:44 when he tipped a shot by Roman Josi.

McAvoy pulled Boston within 5-2 at 6:05 of the third period, scoring on a wrist shot from the left circle to the far side.

“I didn’t like our mentality going in,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said. “It’s always tough when the opponent is missing or scratching guys. I’ve seen it a lot of times before. It’s not like we took it lightly, but the guys who came in worked extremely hard and they worked more than us. That was the difference.”

After Arvidsson made it 5-3 at 15:32, Luke Evangelista scored into an empty net at 17:33 for the 6-3 final.

NOTES: Bruins defenseman Jonathan Aspirot missed the game because of an illness.