Saros makes 24 saves, Predators defeat Sharks

NASHVILLE --Juuse Saros made 24 saves, including a penalty shot in the third period, for the Nashville Predators in a 3-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

Saros, who came within 1:58 of a shutout, preserved a 1-0 lead when he made a save against Barclay Goodrow on a penalty shot at 9:05 of the third period.
Calle Jarnkrok had a goal and an assist for Nashville (14-10-5), which is 5-1-2 in its past eight games.
WATCH: [All Sharks vs. Predators highlights]
"[Saros] was great," Predators captain Roman Josi said. "In the third, they had a penalty shot and I think two other breakaways. He was great all game when they had some huge chances, and he made the saves."
Timo Meier scored for San Jose (15-16-2), which is 0-4-1 in its past five games. Martin Jones made 29 saves.

The Sharks finished 0-3-1 on their four-game road trip.
"Maybe our best game of the trip," San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said. "Having said that, you've got to find a way to win. We've got to find a way to score; that's the story of the trip. The last three games, one goal, one goal, and one tonight, and that was with the goalie [pulled]."
Nick Bonino gave the Predators a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 4:24 of the third period on a shot from the slot. Bonino leads Nashville with 12 goals this season.
"Obviously the scoring this year is great, but there's so many little things [Bonino] does," Josi said. "Every time he's out there, you know he's doing his job. He wins face-offs, he's great defensively, he's great offensively. He kind of does it all for us."

Goodrow was awarded his first NHL penalty shot when he was slashed by Filip Forsberg on a shorthanded breakaway. Saros made the save on Goodrow's wrist shot to preserve the one-goal lead.
"I tried to go five-hole; he squeezed the pads there," Goodrow said.
Ryan Johansen made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 12:59 when he drove to the net and scored on a rebound of his own shot.
"It was a great team win, back-and-forth pretty much the whole game," Johansen said. "They had their chances, [Saros] made some huge saves. We hit a couple in the third and found a way to get some goals and close out the win."

Meier ended Saros' shutout at 18:02 on a rebound from the crease to make it 2-1, and Jarnkrok scored an empty-net goal with 42 seconds remaining for the 3-1 final.
"I think we had a really good effort today," Saros said. "Defense was good. We battled really hard, so it was fun to play behind them."

They said it

"We've got to score more than one or two to win these games. We had chances tonight; we had breakaways, we had good looks, we had a penalty shot. It's unfortunate that we weren't able to score one because we got one at the end there [that] would've tied it up, but we created some good looks." -- Sharks captain Logan Couture
"This was a playoff game out there; it had that feel to it. We're trying to fight our way up, and they're coming from games where they wish they were having more success. When that happens inside of a room, things get ratcheted up with intensity and that's the way it felt on the ice. There wasn't a lot of room; it was hard-fought out there, but not an up-and-down game that had a lot of chances, especially early on. I was really happy with the way we stuck to it and actually got back to it in the third period. I thought they took it to us a little bit in the second and third." -- Predators coach Peter Laviolette

Need to know

San Jose was outscored 17-5 on the road trip. … Predators forward Mikael Granlund returned after missing two games with a lower-body injury. … Nashville has won consecutive games at home for the first time since Oct. 24 and Oct. 29. The Predators defeated the New Jersey Devils 6-4 on Saturday.

What's next

Sharks: Host the New York Rangers on Thursday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, MSG, NHL.TV)
Predators: At the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, FS-TN, NHL.TV)