Blues lose to Predators in first home game without Bouwmeester

ST. LOUIS -- Mikael Granlund scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period to help the Nashville Predators to a 4-3 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

Granlund and Matt Duchene each had a goal and assist for the Predators (28-22-7), and Kyle Turris had a goal and two assists. Juuse Saros made 23 saves for Nashville.
"That was a real hockey game," Granlund said. "There was a lot of emotions and a lot of one-on-one battles. That's a fun way to play the game, and I think we played overall a pretty good hockey game and we were able to get those big two points."
WATCH: [All Predators vs. Blues highlights]
St. Louis (32-16-10), which lost its fourth straight game, was playing its first home game without defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who had a cardiac episode during its game Tuesday. He had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) procedure on Friday to restore his heart's normal rhythm and was placed on injured reserve.
"We're a sensitive team right now and obviously we feel for him and for each other and for his family," Blues defenseman Vince Dunn said. "The support has been really great, and it's hard to get over something like that, but when we're on the ice, we're playing for him, and that should give us more pride to do the right thing, so I guess it's a little shame on us.
"We need to step up for him. We know when he's in the lineup, he's definitely a big presence, so we're not just going to fill his role. We know that, but everyone needs to step it up and focus on making sure they're doing their job out there."
Zach Sanford, Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Kyrou scored for the Blues, who lost for the ninth time in 11 games (2-6-3). Jake Allen made 23 saves.

Granlund scored a power-play goal at 3:59 of the third period for a 4-3 lead when he poked a rebound under Allen's pads.
"We earned the one goal in the third," Granlund said. "That won us the game. It's just a mentality to keep playing the way maybe we need to play no matter what the score is and to trust that the score will come if we do the right things out there."
Kyrou tied the game 3-3 at 10:50 of the second period after Schwartz's power-play goal at 6:18 got the Blues within 3-2.
Turris scored for a 3-1 lead at 4:34 of the second, 21 seconds after Sanford scored his fifth goal in two games to make it 2-1.
"I think I'm just getting some good bounces," Sanford said. "Things are going my way. Linemates are setting me up pretty good and I think as a team, we've got to get more out of our opportunities."

Nashville outshot St. Louis 15-7 in the first period when they took a 2-0 lead. Viktor Arvidsson scored at 6:29 and Duchene at 12:23.
"I thought we came into the game mentally prepared," Nashville coach John Hynes said. "We talked about leaving the (New York) Islanders game behind (5-0 win Thursday) and making sure we were totally attached and invested in this game. I thought we were and had a very good first."

They said it

"It was a real big win for us. Obviously we're battling in the standings and trying to make up ground. To start off the back-to-back with this was real important." -- Predators forward Kyle Turris
"I think pretty emotional with everything going on before the game and stuff. Obviously that had an effect on our group, but we recovered from it. I thought we outplayed them the second and third periods. For the most part, I thought we were the better team, but we ended up short." -- Blues coach Craig Berube

Need to know

Predators defenseman Roman Josi had an assist to give him six during a five-game assist streak. ... Sanford has 14 points (nine goals, five assists) in his past 10 games.

What's next

Predators: Host the St. Louis Blues on Sunday (6 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)
Blues: At the Nashville Predators on Sunday (6 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)