Parssinen scores twice, Predators hold off Islanders

Juuso Parssinen scored twice and had an assist, and Roman Josi had four assists in the Nashville Predators' 5-4 win against the New York Islanders at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Thursday.

Parssinen, a 21-year-old forward, has four points (three goals, one assist) in three NHL games since being recalled from Milwaukee of the American Hockey League on Nov. 12.
"I [have] a lot of confidence right now," Parssinen said. "I get to play a lot. I play with really good teammates, good [linemates], so of course I have confidence now."

Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist for the Predators (8-8-1), who have won three in a row. Juuse Saros made 29 saves.
"He's making life easy for both me and
[Mikael Grandlund
]," Forsberg said of Parssinen. "He skates really well. He's strong on the puck."
Adam Pelech and Jean-Gabriel Pageau each had a goal and an assist for the Islanders (11-7-0), who won their previous two games. Ilya Sorokin made 26 saves.
"The starts aren't good enough," New York captain Anders Lee said. "Tonight was indicative of that."

Nashville scored three goals in the first 9:41 of the game. Forsberg, stationed by the far post, made it 1-0 at 1:03 of the first period when he jammed a rebound of Josi's shot past Sorokin.
Pelech tied it 1-1 at 2:42, but Colton Sissons (8:43) and Nino Niederreiter (9:41) scored on deflections to give the Predators a 3-1 lead.
Parssinen made it 4-1 at 5:01 of the second period when he snapped a shot from the slot over Sorokin.
"He's a power-first player," Nashville coach John Hynes said of Parssinen. "I thought there were some times in the Minnesota game (on Tuesday) where he was playing a little bit more of a finesse game. I thought tonight he was back to being [powerful] and strong on the puck and being an offensive threat. … I thought it was a nice step in the right direction for him again tonight."

Cal Clutterbuck cut it to 4-2 when he redirected Pelech's shot from the point at 15:41, and Kyle Palmieri made it 4-3 at 4:32 of the third period on wrist shot from between the circles after Pageau fed him from behind the net.
But Parssinen redirected Granlund's shot from the right circle for a power-play goal at 9:52 to give Nashville a 5-3 lead.
"Sometimes that hole, you can't afford any other mistakes," Lee said. "When they were able to get that extra [goal] a couple times, it [made] it a little bit further than we had to work back to."
Pageau slammed a no-look feed from Lee past Saros for a power-play goal with 4:21 left for the 5-4 final.
"I thought we answered back pretty well," New York defenseman Noah Dobson said. "We didn't have the jump early on, but I thought we did a good job finding it to try and get back in the game. We did a good job of that, but we have to have a little better jump from the start."

The Islanders outshot the Predators 16-3 in the third.
''The key is finding ways to win, and we made enough plays tonight to give ourselves a chance to win,'' Hynes said. ''I think that's good on the guys for finding a way.''
NOTES: It was Hynes' 100th win as Predators coach. … Nashville defenseman Ryan McDonagh played his 800th NHL game. He had an assist and was plus-3 in 23:17 of ice time. … Each team went 1-for-3 on the power play. … Islanders center Mathew Barzal had an assist, his eighth in the past six games. He has no goals and 19 assists in 18 games this season.