Glass gets 1st hat trick, Predators top Avalanche for 8th straight win

NASHVILLE -- Cody Glass scored his first NHL hat trick, and the Nashville Predators extended their winning streak to eight games with a 5-1 victory against the Colorado Avalanche at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday.

“It was unbelievable,” Glass said. “I was saying before that I think [my teammates] wanted it more than I did. I didn’t want to put any pressure on myself. I was just trying to do what I was doing the whole game. They were trying to find me the whole time. We have a great team here. To be on an eight-game winning streak, everybody is pulling on the same rope.”

Tommy Novak had a goal and an assist, Ryan O'Reilly scored, and Ryan McDonagh had two assists for the Predators (35-25-2), who scored three goals in the third period. Juuse Saros made 25 saves.

“I just liked our relentlessness,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “I think we’re connected. We’re taking away time and space at a high level right now, and that comes from work ethic. It comes from trust, and that comes from being connected and kind of all pulling the same rope.

“We understand where we are, we understand what we’re doing, and we’re having fun doing it. It’s been a great run and well-deserved.”

Nathan MacKinnon scored for the Avalanche (37-20-5), who had won two in a row. Alexandar Georgiev made 30 saves.

“I thought we were competitive, played a hard, really good game for 40 minutes,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “But I’d say the third period, it’s like they got better and we got worse in the third.

"Our breakouts, just the whole deal, we couldn’t deliver the puck to get us out of our own zone and into the neutral zone with any sort of flow.”

Glass gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 15:18 of the first period, beating Georgiev five-hole from the slot off a pass from Colton Sissons on a rush.

“This whole year, battling the injuries and getting healthy and seeing how hard [Glass] has worked to overcome that, he’s a huge reason why we won tonight,” O’Reilly said. “The timely goals were massive, and it’s great to see him get rewarded for it. It’s definitely well-deserved.”

MacKinnon tied it 1-1 at 17:01 with a wrist shot glove side on Saros on a 2-on-1 rush with Mikko Rantanen.

“I think they played good and deserved to win tonight,” Avalanche forward Ryan Johansen said. “We just needed more to get past [Saros] and get on the board. It was a good game until early in the third there and they extended their lead. It was a fun game to play.”

Glass put the Predators ahead 2-1 at 14:26 of the second period with a one-timer from the slot off a pass from behind the net by Novak.

“I think I was just finding the right areas,” Glass said. “Scorers go through different phases of different things during a season. Sometimes you find the open areas, and sometimes you don’t. Today I just felt like I was finding those open areas. I had really good passes on all three goals, so I can’t take credit for all of it.”

O’Reilly extended it to 3-1 at 9:46 of the third period on the power play. Roman Josi took the original shot from the point, and the puck bounced off the back boards to O’Reilly.

Novak pushed it to 4-1 at 17:32 with a power-play goal, scoring on a backhand-to-forehand deke around Colorado defenseman Bowen Byram.

Glass then completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal at 19:08 for the 5-1 final.

“We’ve got 20 games left here to get ourselves ready for how we want to play and how we need to play to be successful,” Johansen said. “We’ll just move on to the next one here and do better next game.”

NOTES: Nashville’s eight-game winning streak is tied for the second longest in its history. Its record is 10 consecutive wins, which came during the 2017-18 season. … MacKinnon extended his point streak to nine games (five goals, 11 assists).