Marchessault, Saros Lead Preds to Victory Over Senators

Jonathan Marchessault tallied twice and the Nashville Predators defeated the Ottawa Senators by a 4-1 final on Monday afternoon at Canadian Tire Centre. The result sees the Preds collect two points in their first road game of the season with a 2-0-1 record to begin the campaign.

Ryan O’Reilly scored what proved to be the game-winner on the day, Cole Smith added Nashville’s second empty-netter and Juuse Saros was outstanding in net with 31 saves to help the Preds to what O’Reilly called a “greasy” road win.

“It wasn't pretty, but we stuck with it when things weren't going well, and we kept fighting,” O’Reilly said. “And, obviously, [Saros] was unbelievable again, made the huge saves when we needed him to, but all in all, we kept fighting. The third period began a little slow, but got the momentum back. We started getting to a simpler and simpler game, and making good, hard plays… There's things we’ve got to improve, but things to feel good about.”

“[It was a] gutsy performance from our group,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “I thought it was a hard road game. It was kind of a little bizarre with all the penalties and a lot of the puck dropping and so kind of took a little bit of momentum on both sides away at different times. But I loved our third period. I loved most of our game. The second period probably wasn't perfect for us. [Saros] was amazing. He has been all year, and kind of kept us in it. And it was a big goal by [O’Reilly].”

The game’s opening period featured plenty of special teams work - including a masterful 5-on-3 penalty kill by the Preds for almost 90 seconds - but no goals.

In the second stanza, Ottawa appeared to have taken the game’s first lead, but Nashville’s successful challenge for goaltender interference wiped the goal off the board, instead setting the stage for the visitors’ loudest line to convert. Just over midway through the period, Erik Haula helped a turnover find Michael Bunting, and he found Marchessault down low who beat Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark through the five-hole for a 1-0 lead through 40 minutes.

O’Reilly gave the visitors some insurance in the final frame as he finished off a play with Filip Forsberg and Steven Stamkos in tight to put the Preds up 2-0 - although O’Reilly wasn’t necessarily expecting a dish from his teammate.

“It started with [Forsberg] making a really, really nice play at the red line there, winning that battle, throwing over to [Stamkos], and I thought he was just going to put it in himself, and I think the whole building did,” O’Reilly smiled. “But I was just following up, just in case of the rebound, and he makes an unbelievable play, and I was just able to get a little piece of it and got lucky it went in. It was obviously a big goal for us at that time to kind of settle us down and get that. A big win, and obviously a good play by those guys.”

Ottawa broke Saros’ shutout bid with just over two minutes to play in regulation, but both Marchessault and Smith found the empty net to seal the victory and send Nashville out of the building with their second win in three tries this season.

“Just a good road win,” Marchessault said. “Obviously, we had a couple stretches I think we could have done a better job. I thought overall, I think our power play could have helped out a little better tonight. I think we’ve got to put things away in those situations when you get a power play in the third period and stuff like that. But overall, I think a good way to win a hockey game. I mean, we played pretty tight. We didn’t give up too much. I think our structure defensively was mostly pretty good all game and, yeah, we found a way to win a hockey game.”

Despite surrendering a late power-play goal with an extra attacker, Nashville’s penalty kill was solid, and as he has been in the first two outings, Saros was excellent once more, including a ridiculous glove save while diving to his left with less than five minutes to play in regulation.

“He's an elite goaltender for a reason, and he's giving us a chance to win every night,” Marchessault said of Saros. “That's the beauty of having quality goaltending like that. We're definitely lucky to have him, and he was unbelievable tonight… It's a team effort, and we definitely want to battle [for] a goaltending department that works so hard like this.”

From here, Nashville’s Canadian excursion continues Tuesday night in Toronto, and the Preds will face a playoff-caliber team as they look to continue building off plenty of positives in the early going.

“I think we want to get to our game kind of right away,” O’Reilly said. “I think [there were] still a lot of good things, and there was a lot of work. We stayed positive today. I think we could be a little more consistent in certain areas, a little better with the puck at times. If we can do that, we’ll kind of set ourselves up for a better deal.”

Notes:

Joakim Kemell played his first game of the season and skated on Nashville’s top line with Filip Forsberg and Ryan O’Reilly. Rookie Brady Martin was scratched for the first time this season; Ozzy Wiesblatt and Nick Blankenburg were also healthy scratches in Ottawa.

The Predators scored at least four goals in the road opener for the sixth time in franchise history. The others: 2005-06 (5), 2006-07 (5), 2021-22 (4), 2019-20 (4) and 2002-03 (4).

Nashville’s road trip continues tomorrow night in Toronto when they face the Maple Leafs at 6 p.m. CT before visiting Montreal and Winnipeg later in the week.