Forsberg Breaks Predators Single-Season Goals Record, Notches 10th Career Hat Trick in 5-1 Win Over Blackhawks

Have a night, No. 9.

Filip Forsberg broke Nashville’s single-season goals record and notched his 10th career regular-season hat trick as the Predators earned a decisive 5-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Friday.

With two games remaining before postseason action begins, the Predators felt Friday’s performance, which featured a perfect 3-for-3 power play and a tilted 40-26 shot count from the visitors, gave them another valuable momentum boost.

“We just want to keep building our game,” Forsberg said. “I thought tonight was a pretty solid effort and I think we’re obviously going to need that coming in against whoever we play whether it's on the Central [Division] side or the Pacific [Division] side. There's really good teams out there waiting for us, but we're pretty good too.”

“It’s part of the process,” Predators Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “Every night is a different challenge. Tonight [we faced] a young team with nothing to lose. They’ve got some speed and some skill, and I thought we just stayed to our identity. And that's a little bit of maturity from the group. We're bringing in every night and staying to us.”

The result saw Nashville sweep their season series against the Blackhawks and move to 46-29-5 on the campaign.

QUICK HITS

Filip ‘Franchise-Record’ Forsberg

No. 44 broke the franchise record, No. 45 broke another and No. 46 saw the hats fly at United Center as the man they call Scoresberg iced another characteristically dominant performance.

“I'm going to try to make it as hard as possible to beat [the record] for myself or for anyone else,” Forsberg said. “It's obviously awesome. The franchise has had a lot of great players and just to be mentioned as one of them is obviously something that's cool. And hopefully I'm not done yet.”

Sailing a shot from above the circle past Arvid Soderblom and into the cage at 5:53 of the first period, Forsberg scored his 44th goal of the season to take sole possession of the franchise’s single-season record.

Padding his newly-minted record at 5:22 of the second period, Forsberg recorded his 10th multi-goal performance of the season and bested the franchise’s single-season record in that category as well.

Of course, No. 9 wasn’t done cooking just yet.

Scoring again at 1:37 of the third period, Forsberg recorded his second hat trick of the season and the franchise-leading 10th of his career.

Forsberg’s trio of markers additionally earned the forward 92 points on the campaign (46g-46a), enough to join Roman Josi (96 in 2021-22) as the only other player in franchise history to hit the 90-point mark in a single season.

Welcome Back, Lanky

Making his first start at United Center since leaving the Blackhawks as a free agent in 2022, Kevin Lankinen stood tall for his team once again.

Stopping 25 shots, and recording his first assist of the season for good measure, Lankinen moved to 11-6-0 on the season and 5-2-0 in his last seven starts.

“He's been phenomenal for us all season,” Forsberg said. “Just being able to step up whenever we need him is something that he’s been doing since last year, basically, I feel like he's never played a bad game since he signed with us, and we're really lucky to have him.”

Of course, Friday’s location made the winning performance even sweeter.

“It was special to me a little bit, because [I have] a lot of great memories here,” Lankinen said. “Obviously, I've been here before but haven't gotten the start, so it was fun to stand there for the anthem and kind of soak it all in. It's a special building for sure.”

Top-Line Vincenzo

With Gustav Nyquist out of the lineup on Friday (roster management), rookie forward Luke Evangelista joined Forsberg and Ryan O’Reilly on Nashville’s top line and delivered.

Recording an assist on Forsberg’s first and third goals, Evangelista recorded his fourth multi-point performance of the season, a career high, and his first since Nov. 24 vs. St. Louis.

“He's been playing really good hockey as of late and I thought he brought that tonight,” Forsberg said. “He has patience with the puck and he’s battling hard. He's not the biggest guy, but he's strong on the stick. And it’s been great watching him develop throughout the season.”

“I thought he was really good,” Brunette said. “He's trending, especially in the second half of the year, in a really positive way. And he's got the ability to think with those guys and he's got a little moxie to make plays. So, I thought it was a great fit.”

Josi Hits 60

With the primary assist on Jason Zucker’s second-period goal, Nashville’s captain reached 60 assists on the season for the second time in his career. The only other campaign to feature at least 60 helpers from the captain was 2021-22 (73).

The assist additionally extended Josi’s point streak to three games (1g-3a).

UP NEXT

The Predators conclude their back-to-back set and their 2023-24 home schedule on Saturday when they face the Columbus Blue Jackets at Bridgestone Arena. Click here to get tickets.

Puck drop is at 7 p.m. CT, with the game set to broadcast on Bally Sports South, 102.5 The Game and El Jefe Radio.

NOTES

• Following Friday’s win, the Predators have now earned at least a point in 27 of their last 31 games against the Blackhawks (23-4-4), holding Chicago to two-or-fewer goals 26 times in that span.
• Per NHL PR, Forsberg became the fifth Swedish-born player in NHL history to score 45 goals in a season, joining Kent Nilsson (2x; last: 46 in 1982-83), Markus Naslund (48 in 2002-03), Mats Sundin (47 in 1992-93) and Hakan Loob (50 in 1987-88). Forsberg recorded the 43rd multi-goal game of his NHL career to tie Daniel Sedin and Peter Forsberg for the sixth-most by a Swedish-born player in League history behind Sundin (81), Daniel Alfredsson (64), Naslund (52), Nilsson (47) and Henrik Zetterberg (45). With his 10th career hat trick, Forsberg additionally became the third Swedish-born player in League history with 10 career hat tricks, following Kent Nilsson (14) and Markus Naslund (11).
• Dante Fabbro rejoined the lineup for his first game since March 30 vs. Colorado and recorded a +1 rating, three shot attempts and two blocks over 17:06 of total ice time.
• Cody Glass rejoined the lineup for his first game since April 2 vs. Boston and recorded two shots and four shot attempts over 11:08 of total ice time.
• Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Tyson Barrie, Ryan McDonagh (roster management), Gustav Nyquist (roster management) and Juuse Saros (roster management) were scratched and did not skate in Friday’s game.