They’re not done yet.
Steven Stamkos scored his 40th goal of the season, and the Nashville Predators defeated the Minnesota Wild by a 2-1 final on Saturday evening at Bridgestone Arena. The result gets the Preds back in the win column and keeps them in the thick of the Wild Card race in the final week of the regular season.
Matthew Wood scored what proved to be the game-winner for Nashville, and Justus Annunen made 21 saves to earn his second win of the week as the Preds collected a massive two points once more.
“Just a really big game, obviously, for us - a must-win,” Preds Captain Roman Josi said. “I thought we came out really strong. We played really good in the first [period] and I thought the second [period] was pretty good, too… I just loved our intensity and the will to win and got it done.”
“I thought [Minnesota] came out pretty hard, and we weathered the storm a little bit… We stuck with it and we got to our game,” Stamkos said. “And obviously sitting on a lead with a game of this magnitude, we probably wanted to push a little more in the third, but "Big Juice” made some big saves, and we defended hard - that was a huge win for our group.”
Stamkos scored Nashville’s first goal of the day when he tucked a loose puck just inside the post and over the line for a 1-0 lead, and Wood doubled the advantage in the second stanza when Stamkos set him up for a perfectly placed wrister and a two-goal lead headed into the third.
Former Preds centerman Michael McCarron brought the Wild to within one as he made his return to Nashville, but that was as close as the visitors came as Annunen shut the door once again.
“With 'Big Juice,' it's not always easy to be put in that position,” Stamkos said. “He's just a pro. He works his butt off in practice. He prepares before the games. You guys don't see the work he puts in there, so it's a confidence boost. You see him in the zone. You saw that Anaheim game, you saw tonight, he's making routine glove saves, the pucks just sitting there. There's [no] second and third chances. You could tell when a goalie is in the zone. It's a good feeling for the rest of the group, and he's given us a chance the last couple games.”
For Stamkos, who recorded his eighth career 40-goal campaign - and became just the third player in Preds history to reach the milestone - the moments have never been too big all season long. Instead, he’s risen to the occasion time and time again, and in an outing where his club all but had to have a victory, he more than delivered.
“He's been unbelievable,” Josi said of Stamkos. “I mean, he's one of the best goal scorers of all time, and it shows… He’s such an amazing leader on our team, and it's just so cool to have a guy like him on the team in big games. He’s taking charge, and the last couple of weeks have been really huge for us. He's taking charge and playing unbelievable. He's vocal in the room, he's helping our team, and he's not just scoring, he's doing everything else, too. So, it's been pretty cool to see.”
“He's obviously one of the greats, and he's a great goal scorer, great playmaker, and made two great plays on both the goals tonight,” Wood said of Stamkos. “That's why he's Steven Stamkos, and it's fun to be a part of, fun to watch, fun to play with him. I mean, at the end of the day, It helps the team get to where we need to be, and that's the most important thing. It’s a lot of fun. We have a lot of guys like that in this group, and it's been a lot of fun.”
Just two games remain on the schedule for the Predators, and while they’ll need help elsewhere around the League over the coming days, they intend on doing their part to stay right in the thick of the playoff race. So far, so good - and there’s nothing better at this time of year.
“[Our team and our leaders], they all bought in and put ourselves in a position just to be where we are,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “We're very grateful, but we also want a lot more. And this is a big week. We talked about winning the week. We won last week, and this is the week we've got to win.”
Notes:
Preds Captain Roman Josi returned to the lineup after missing Thursday’s game with an upper-body injury. Prior to Saturday’s game, the Predators recalled defenseman Kevin Gravel from Milwaukee, but he was a healthy scratch along with Jordan Oesterle and Ozzy Wiesblatt. Blueliner Nicolas Hague remains day-to-day with his upper-body injury and did not play Saturday.
Per NHL PR, Steven Stamkos scored to record his eighth career 40-goal season, tied with Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull, Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille for the seventh most in NHL history.
Stamkos became the third active player to record 200 go-ahead goals. The only others to achieve the feat are Alex Ovechkin (297) and Sidney Crosby (235).
Matthew Wood scored his 17th goal of the season to surpass Adam Hall (16 in 2002-03) and Luke Evangelista (16 in 2023-24) for the fourth-most by a rookie in a season for Nashville. Topping the list is Filip Forsberg (26 in 2014-15), Tanner Jeannot (24 in 2021-22) and Alexander Radulov (18 in 2006-07).
Just two games remain on the regular-season schedule for the Preds, and they’ll host San Jose on Monday night before concluding the campaign against Anaheim on Thursday.
