Preds Extinguish Flames With 2-1 Win

The Nashville Predators snapped a three-game skid with a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames Monday at Bridgestone Arena.
Juuso Parssinen extended his point streak to seven games, tying the franchise record for a rookie, and Roman Josi scored his 12th goal of the season in the win.
Juuse Saros made 38 saves in goal - including 21 in the third period alone - for the Preds, who improved to 20-17-6 on the season with the win.

THE STORY

Roman Josi was the first to light the lamp, receiving a pass from Ryan McDonagh and firing home a slap shot from the point to give Nashville a 1-0 lead at 8:26 of the first period.
After killing their first penalty of the night - a hooking minor called on Parssinen - the Preds extended their lead to 2-0 when Parssinen skated straight out of the penalty box and into the crease to poke in a rebound from Tanner Jeannot with just over five minutes remaining in the first frame.
The Flames cut Nashville's lead in half late in the second frame, when Nikita Zadorov got a feed from Mikael Backlund and fired a wrist shot from the slot past Saros' glove side for the lone goal of the period.
Calgary appeared to tie the game on the power play at 3:58 of the third period, but the goal was waved off when it was determined that Tyler Toffoli had kicked the puck across the goal line. Despite some late penalty trouble, the Predators were able to hold on for the 2-1 final.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Record-Tying Rookie
With his goal in the first period, Parssinen extended his point streak to seven games (2g-7a). In doing so, he tied Filip Forsberg for the longest point streak by a rookie in franchise history. Forsberg set the record in his rookie season, scoring in seven straight games from Oct. 31-Nov. 13, 2014 (7g-6a).

Per NHL PR, Parssinen's nine points (2g-7a) in eight games played since the calendar flipped to 2023 trail only Seattle Kraken rookie Matty Beniers' 11 (6g-5a) for the most points among all rookies over that span.
Captain Slap Shot
With his first-period tally, Josi now has 31 points (11g-20a) in his last 33 games after scoring a goal Saturday vs. Buffalo. He has now recorded nine 10-goal seasons in his NHL career, the second-most in Predators history behind David Legwand (13). His 34 points (12g-32a) are the ninth-most by an NHL defensemen in 2022-23
Josi, who also scored against the Flames on Nov. 3, has six goals and 19 assists in 31 career games vs. Calgary.

THEY SAID IT

Josi on Nashville's Overall Effort:
"I thought the first period was really good. We had a lot of chances and they didn't get much. The second was good too, and then I think the third we just got into some penalty trouble, but other than that I thought we played a pretty good third. Obviously you're up a goal and you want to stay out of the box and not get us in penalty trouble."
Josi on Saros' Impact on the Team:
"It's huge. I think in the last couple of games we kind of left him out to dry a little bit. We didn't play as well defensively as we would have liked to. I thought it was better tonight. But it doesn't matter how you play. He always keeps us in games. So I think if we do a good job in front of him and play good defensively, we've got a really good chance to win any game with him in net."
Head Coach John Hynes on Nashville's Overall Effort:
"One of the things we talked about was just being better defensively. I thought we did a good job of that. We were more physical and in our defensive zone. Our arrivals at the puck were hard and hard and intense. I thought we did a good job with the net front. We didn't give up the easy chances that we gave up, I thought, the last few minutes at Montreal and Buffalo. I thought from an offensive perspective, I thought we generated quite a bit and we didn't get rewarded for. I think some of the looks that we have I think overall it's a really, really solid game for us to get back into the win column and build off that game… That was something that we had talked about with the group this morning and I think we came out and we played fast. I thought we were really competitive on the puck. I thought our execution with the puck was really good and then I thought we did some good things in the offensive zone where we played fast. We had a shot mentality, we had retrievals and that's when we're playing our best that's what we're able to do. I thought that that was able to get us off to a good start and I thought for the most part we, you know, continue that throughout the game. I thought it was a real solid 60 minutes."
Hynes on the play of Parssinen and Cody Glass:
"I really liked Cody tonight. I thought he skated really well. I thought he made some really good plays. We liked that line tonight in general. It was nice to see Cody come in and play with those two guys. We just felt that the way that he was skating and giving him a chance to play with those two guys was good. I thought (Juuso) Parssinen was pretty strong too. With [Colton Sissons] and [Cole Smith], I thought that was a line that we could play against [Andrew Mangiapane's] line. That's kind of a third line that's hard. They've been playing really well for them. So it's nice to see those two guys. they're they're two young centermen that both have good offensive instincts. They both can skate. I think they're both playing pretty consistently at this point. I like the way that both of them play and both have lines that play well."

UP NEXT

The Preds are back at it Tuesday night, when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at Bridgestone Arena. Puck drops at 7 p.m. CT, and the game will be broadcast on Bally Sports South, 102.5 The Game and El Jefe Radio.