Duchene, Granlund, Preds Finish Road Trip with Overtime Win in St. Louis

Matt Duchene scored twice - including the overtime winner - Mikael Granlund dished out four assists and the Nashville Predators defeated the St. Louis Blues by a 4-3 final on Thursday night at Enterprise Center. The result gives the Preds two wins in two nights and nine out of a possible 12 points to finish their season-long, six-game road trip.
David Rittch made his Predators debut in net and made 33 stops on the evening, and on the second half of a back-to-back set in the Central Division, Nashville found a way to win once more.

The Blues had a 2-0 lead after the game's first 20 minutes courtesy of a pair from Jordan Kyrou, but Nashville evened things up in the second stanza.
First, Duchene scored for the second time in as many nights when he wristed a shot past Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington just 17 seconds into the middle period, and seven minutes later, Duchene hit Luke Kunin with a beautiful feed, and the St. Louis native finished in front to tie the game at 2-2.
Nashville took their first lead of the night when Yakov Trenin went short side for his first goal of the season four minutes into the third, but Vladimir Tarasenko and the Blues forced overtime with one more goal of their own.
But then, at the 2:01 mark of OT, Granlund found Duchene for his second of the night and his sixth goal of the trip - plus second overtime winner - for No. 95 to end the night and send the Preds home happy.

Thursday Storyline:

They finished the trip just how they started it.
Over one week ago in Calgary, Mikael Granlund started a 2-on-1 in overtime with Matt Duchene, and a perfect pass found the tape of the finisher to begin the journey with two points.
Nine days later in St. Louis, Granlund and Duchene did it again.
The final exclamation point gave the Predators their fourth win in six tries on the trip - and only one loss in regulation - as Nashville simply found a way once more.

"It's really satisfying," Granlund said of the win. "Off [St. Louis'] first period, it was just really impressive in the second period and in the third how we came out and found a way to win a hockey game. I mean, we knew it was not going to be easy, back-to-back, coming into this building, but I think we did a really good job. Overall, this two-game road trip has been really good for us, the way we have played. I mean, there's a lot of good things out there."
For Duchene, who was arguably Nashville's best player during the trip with six goals in six games, the last week-and-a-half has shown him and the rest of the team what they're capable of when they put forth a consistent, well-executed effort.
"I think some of the adversity we went through in the last couple years has made us so resilient and made us like nothing bothers us," Duchene said. "I mean, we get down 2-0 after the first, and [it was] not our best period and they're taking it to us and dominating the game, but we don't really care. We just come back, and obviously, we score [on the] first shift, which was big, and then we just roll from there. And it's fun.

"We don't ever get too low and we never get too high, we just have fun playing. It's a very different vibe than the last two years where...guys [would have their] heads down holding their stick tight and just felt like the weight of the world was on us. And this year it's a different vibe. We're just having a ton of fun, and you can see nothing bothers us, and that's pretty dangerous to have that vibe in the locker room."
While Duchene and Granlund received most of the accolades at the end of the night, a road win like this doesn't happen without a little something from everyone, and that's exactly what the Predators got in St. Louis.

"Tonight, guys came in, we're plugged in, I thought that David [Rittich] made some good saves when we needed him to make them, we didn't have any power plays in the game, but we had to find ways to score," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "I just really liked some of the big plays - [Michael] McCarron gets in, he gets in a fight, he has a huge blocked shot, we had big blocks late in the third period; and then you look at the game Granlund and Duchene put together as a group, and [Kunin] in that line logging big minutes, over 20 minutes in a back-to-back, just a really good character win. It just talks about the mental toughness, physical toughness, and I think the camaraderie and the togetherness of the group. You saw that tonight, and we get rewarded for it."

Highlight of the Night:

They Said It:

Mikael Granlund on Matt Duchene:
"We've been doing a lot of good things and obviously Dutchy, he's doing a lot of good things, the way he's shooting the puck and finding the net. That's great, and he keeps shooting and the puck is just finding its way to the net right now. And you know, I'm really happy for him. He's doing a lot of good things out there."

Notes:

Preds defenseman Mattias Ekholm appeared in his 600th NHL game as the Preds took on the Blues Thursday night. Ekholm is now tied with fellow defenseman Dan Hamhuis for seventh in all-time games played in franchise history. From there, only David Legwand (956), Shea Weber (763), Martin Erat (723), Roman Josi (694), Pekka Rinne (683) and Craig Smith (661) sit higher on the list.
David Rittich became the 20th goaltender to play for the Preds in franchise history. Rittich is the fifth player to wear No. 33 for Nashville - he joins Viktor Arvidsson, Colin Wilson, Vladimir Orszagh & Marc Moro.
After leaving Wednesday's game in Dallas due to blocking a shot up high, Preds defenseman Alexandre Carrier did not play Thursday in St. Louis with an upper-body injury. Carrier will be evaluated again as the Predators return to Nashville. Defenseman Mark Borowiecki returned to the lineup in Carrier's place after missing four games with an upper-body injury of his own.
Forward Rocco Grimaldi and defenseman Ben Harpur were scratched for Nashville on Thursday night.
With their six-game road trip now complete, the Predators return home to host the Arizona Coyotes at Bridgestone Arena for Hockey Fights Cancer Night on Saturday (7 p.m. CT).