Petr Mrazek made 25 saves for the Hurricanes (15-10-1), who have lost two in a row. Carolina had defeated Nashville in six straight games, and Mrazek was 8-0-0 against the Predators.
"It certainly wasn't a game where we got dominated," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "It felt like we had more chances than they did, Grade A's too. I think it was unfortunate we didn't score on those real early ones."
Grimaldi's second goal of the season gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 8:15 of the first period. He took a flip pass from Nick Bonino through the neutral zone and tucked a shot through Mrazek's five-hole.
"[Bonino] made a great flip to me," Grimaldi said. "I'm just happy it didn't flip over my stick. I was trying to make a move, and [Mrazek] really didn't bite on the move. I thought five-hole was the only option at that point."
Filip Forsberg fed a pass across the slot to Jarnkrok in the left face-off circle for a wrist shot that gave Nashville a 2-0 lead at 17:55.
"Even coming in after the first, we were happy with the period," Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook said. "We had some more chances in the second, but that team, the style they play, they lock down the neutral zone."
Watson tipped Mattias Ekholm's shot in the low slot for his first goal in 12 games to make it 3-0 at 3:28 of the second period.
"It's a big point in the game, (whether) that game goes to 2-1 or 3-0," Watson said. "That's a completely different situation. We talked about it in here, making sure we didn't take our foot off the gas at all and just trying to get better throughout the game."
