Preds Extend Win Streak with Victory in Seattle

Four different Nashville skaters found the back of the net as the Predators defeated the Seattle Kraken by a 4-2 final on Tuesday night from Climate Pledge Arena. The result extends Nashville's win streak to three games and gives them two points in their first-ever visit to Seattle to start a two-game trip.
Luke Kunin, Filip Forsberg, Mattias Ekholm and Matt Duchene all scored on the evening, and goaltender Juuse Saros earned his 23rd win of the campaign by stopping 33 shots.

Seattle took the first lead of the night when Jared McCann capitalized on a two-man advantage, but with just 21 seconds to play in the opening period, Matt Benning found Kunin for a one-timer to beat Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer to even the score after 20 minutes.

The Kraken went ahead once more midway through the second stanza when Adam Larsson capitalized in front to beat Saros, but the Predators tied the game again less than three minutes later when Forsberg tallied on one of his more impressive shots in recent memory as he flew down the right wing and went top shelf.
Then, less than two minutes after that, Ekholm converted on a wraparound when his centering feed deflected off a Seattle defender and over the line to give the Preds their first lead of the night.

The Kraken pushed to tie the game in the final frame, but with less than five minutes to play, Duchene reached the 20-goal mark when he tallied on the power play to put the game away for the Preds with win No. 27 on the season.
Forsberg's goal was his 21st of the season, and it took him just 31 games to do so, 14 games sooner than his next closest stretch.

Tuesday Storyline:

New city, same desired result.
The outing didn't always go the way of the visitors, as Ekholm observed, but the Preds did more than enough to still earn the win in their first trip to Seattle in franchise history.
"I didn't think it was a perfect game by any means from us, but we find ways to win and that's the most important thing," Ekholm said. "We had moments where we really liked our game. I thought we [had an advantage] for long stretches of periods, but obviously they came at us too in their home barn. It was pretty much usually what it is - you like some, you don't like some, so I'm sure we'll learn from that, but all in all, we got the two points and that's the objective of today."

"I just liked the fact that we had a pretty gritty effort," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "We had to stay with it. It wasn't an easy game. Credit to Seattle, I thought they played a good game and tested us in certain areas, but I felt like we were able to gather ourselves in the areas that gave us trouble in particular periods. We felt like it didn't continue from period to period. We were able to adjust some things, and the guys came out, battled, did a good job and [earned a] hard-fought two points."
The highlight of the night - see below - came off the stick of Forsberg when he rifled a perfectly-placed shot from the right-wing side, just another display of his elite skill that has helped the Predators on more than a few occasions.
"It was a great goal," Hynes said. "It was just a great play by him. That's the ability that he has uses his speed up ice you know, finds his way into the scoring area with a nice move and then we all know he's got to this guy can score and he's also got a great shot. He's got a knack for the net. That was a big time. That was a goal scorer's goal and you know, that's what he's done for us quite a bit this year. And he's come up. You know, he scored a lot for us. I think he's playing the game the right way and that's what you need guys that you're playing in a lot of situations come up with some big plays at key times and Filip's been able to do that he did it again tonight,
After losing four-straight for the first time in quite some time, the Predators are now back on another three-game win streak, almost commonplace for the group this season. In this instance, Nashville had to come from behind for their 14th road triumph, no easy task.
But as they've done so many times already, the Preds simply found a way once more.
"This group has shown time in and time out that it doesn't matter the score, it doesn't matter how many goals we're down with or up with, we still fight," Ekholm said. "We're in there battling, and again tonight, I thought we did a good job coming back. We had a really good stretch there late in the second that kind of set us up for the game. So obviously, we'd like to jump up early, get a good lead and hold on to it, but sometimes it's really good for your group to go through different scenarios in the game and emotions. So, it was really nice for us to be able to come back twice."

Highlight of the Night:

They Said It:

Mattias Ekholm on Filip Forsberg's goal:
"That's kind of what separates him I think from a lot of forwards in this League. That shot is unbelievable. You could just see the determination he had behind the net skating up, and nobody was catching him and he just went in and ripped one and it was kind of like...Yeah, there's not too many players that can do that in this League. It's impressive. I don't know what kind of goal pace he's been on, but he's just been a force for us and he wins games for us. Great individual performance again."

Notes:

Prior to Tuesday's game, the Predators recalled forward Cole Smith and defenseman Matt Tennyson from the taxi squad.
Earlier in the day, Preds General Manager David Poile said on ESPN 102.5 The Game that defenseman Dante Fabbro (upper-body, Injured Reserve) is not on the current trip, but Poile said he expected Fabbro could be ready to return next week. Poile also said the same for forward Eeli Tolvanen who is currently on the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list.
Nashville's two game-trip will conclude on Thursday night in Edmonton against the Oilers before the Preds return home to host Vancouver next week.