Ingram, Predators deal Wild first loss

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Connor Ingram made 33 saves in his NHL debut, and the Nashville Predators handed the Minnesota Wild their first loss of the season with a 5-2 win at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.

Ingram, who was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third round (No. 88) of the 2016 NHL Draft, is the second goalie in Nashville history to win his NHL debut (Pekka Rinne, 2005).
"It was a good performance today from everyone," the 24-year-old said. "I still don't think it's hit me a little bit. Ignorance is bliss at this point where you don't really realize what's going on yet, but it felt good."
Roman Josi had a goal and three assists, Ryan Johansen scored twice, Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist, and Matt Duchene had three assists for the Predators (2-4-0), who were coming off a 6-4 loss at the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.

Nick Bjugstad and Nico Sturm scored, and Kaapo Kahkonen made 24 saves in his season debut for the Wild (4-1-0), who defeated the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in overtime Saturday.
"Our energy has been real good up to this point. For whatever reason, we had nothing there tonight," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "To put a finger on it, I don't know. They played last night, too. we should have had more than we had tonight."
Josi gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 3:45 of the first period with a power-play goal, scoring on a rebound in the slot after his initial deflection was blocked.
The Wild have allowed the first goal in each of their five games.
Johansen scored a power-play goal on his own rebound in front to make it 2-0 at 5:54. He then pushed the lead to 3-0 at 12:25 when he scored after receiving a spinning pass from Josi.
Bjugstad cut it to 3-1 at 11:30 of the second period when he took a stretch pass from Jon Merrill off the boards and beat Ingram blocker side from the right face-off circle.
Forsberg deflected Josi's one-timer from the point to make it 4-1 at 13:15, and Tanner Jeannot batted the puck out of the air to extend the lead to 5-1 at 18:35.
"[We] definitely wanted to keep going and not let them come back," Josi said. "We knew how dangerous they were. Although they got the first goal in the second, I thought we did a good job still creating chances, still being aggressive, and I think that was key."

Sturm scored with three seconds left in the second period to make it 5-2.
"I think today was one of those nights where it's like the harder we tried it seemed like we were kind of spinning the wheels in the sand there," Sturm said. "It was like the harder we tried the less it seemed like it was going to go our way. We just didn't keep it simple enough, and just overall did a poor job playing in front of Kaapo."
Nashville scored eight goals through its first four games but has scored nine in the past two.
"We've talked with our group that you're going to go through an 82-game season and there's times where you're playing pretty well and you have substance in your game but maybe you're not finding ways to win or goals aren't going in," Predators coach John Hynes said. "I think if you stay with it, which our guys did, you're eventually going to get rewarded. I think there was real true, honest belief and assessment in our game and in our locker room, and tonight I think we put together that effort."
Nashville forward Eeli Tolvanen left the game with an upper-body injury at 5:13 of the first period following a hit by Minnesota defenseman Jared Spurgeon, who was assessed a minor penalty for boarding. An update will be provided by the Predators on Tuesday.