Predators erupt for 4 goals in 2nd period, defeat Bruins

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.

“Our team is pretty battle-tested,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “Nothing they do really surprises me. I thought everybody from our leaders grabbing it like they have all year and our young kids brought some energy. It was a good synergy tonight. Proud of the group. It’s been an emotional week for a lot of guys, and we stuck together like we have all year.”

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.

“We’re still there making a playoff push,” Josi said. “You see a lot of guys go (in trades) that meant a lot to this team. We’re a tight group. We’ve been through a lot together, even this year with the way that we started and then came back and we battled. It’s kind of always been about the group and the guys in this room.”

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.

Predators forward Ryan O'Reilly was scratched because of an upper-body injury.

Before the game, Nashville traded forward Michael Bunting to the Dallas Stars for a third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. The Predators traded forwards Michael McCarron (to the Minnesota Wild) and Cole Smith (to the Vegas Golden Knights) on Tuesday, and defenseman Nick Blankenburg (to the Colorado Avalanche) on Wednesday.

Nashville recalled forwards Joakim Kemell, Reid Schaefer and Fedor Svechkov, and defenseman Ryan Ufko from Milwaukee of the American Hockey League on Thursday. Each was in the lineup. 

Ufko, playing his second NHL game, got his first career point with the secondary assist on Forsberg’s goal.

“Today we were more prepared, I guess, for what happened,” Predators forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “We were able to play with a lot of energy still.”

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