Steven Stamkos scored two goals - and the Predators earned two more points - the latter of which slid them into a playoff spot.
Ryan O’Reilly and Tyson Jost also tallied, and Nashville defeated the Vegas Golden Knights by a 4-1 final on Saturday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena. The result bumps the Preds up to 73 points - good enough to take hold of the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference standings.
Despite a slow start that saw Vegas outshoot Nashville by a 20-4 count through one period, the Predators led virtually the entire afternoon - and Justus Annunen was excellent again in a triumphant matinee.
“It feels great to win this game,” O’Reilly said. “It's a good team over there. But we have to get control earlier, myself and the leadership group. We’ve got to find a way to get something in the first [period]. If it wasn't for ‘Big Juice’ in there, that game could have gotten out of hand quick. There's some lessons there, for sure, but the feeling of winning that game, and the second and third were better, and the power play came up big.”
“It obviously took a while for us to get going, but sometimes you’ve got to give another team some credit,” Stamkos said. “They were hungry, and they got shut out two games in a row. I know it's probably not up to their standard, so they came out heavy and hard, and thank God for ‘Big Juice.’ We didn't waste his performance, and that was kind of the story of tonight. We played a lot better in the second and third.”
Stamkos needed just 40 seconds into the contest to give the Preds a 1-0 lead when he one-timed a clean face-off win from O’Reilly into the twine. In the second stanza, it was Stamkos again - this time on the man advantage to pass Brendan Shanahan for seventh in NHL history with 238 power-play goals - and a 2-0 lead.
Then, Jost put the Preds up by three when he tallied shorthanded, and after Vegas scored for the first time in their last three games, O’Reilly gave Nashville a three-goal lead once more when he redirected a centering feed past Akira Schmid for a 4-1 score through 40 minutes.
From there, the Predators continued to hold off the Golden Knights with Annunen starring for the second-straight outing and making 39 saves in total.
And, at least for time being in the Western logjam, the Preds found themselves in a postseason spot by the end of the afternoon.
“It’s just the belief of the guys in this room, and that's all that matters,” Stamkos said. “The coaching staff has a belief, the players have a belief, and it's not always going to be pretty. We understand at this time of the year, points are more important than how good the game looks, but you want to build, and we have. We've put a decent stretch together here the past six, seven games and collecting points. It's there for the taking. We play some teams that we're battling right with here coming up, so every game is big.”
Nashville will try for their fourth-straight win in less than 24 hours when they face the Blackhawks in Chicago on Sunday afternoon, and while a better start will be top of mind, the Preds know one thing for certain - there’s no better feeling than stacking points, and they keep finding ways to do just that.
“We're playing winning hockey right now,” Jost said. “We're fighting for our playoff lives, and it's no better feeling to do that in the NHL; just trying to get into the playoffs with a great organization, and a great group of guys.”
Notes:
Goaltender Juuse Saros (upper-body, day-to-day) remained out of the Nashville lineup on Saturday. Matt Murray backed up Annunen. Forward Joakim Kemell was the lone healthy scratch for the Preds against Vegas.
Per NHL PR, Steven Stamkos scored his 101st career game-winning goal and tied Jarome Iginla for 10th place on the NHL’s all-time list.
The Predators will now head north to Chicago to face the Blackhawks tomorrow afternoon before returning to host a three-game homestand next week.
