Forsberg scores twice, Predators recover to hold off Sharks

SAN JOSE -- Filip Forsberg had two goals and one assist for the Nashville Predators in a 6-3 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Saturday.

Tyson Jost had a goal and two assists, and Steven Stamkos, Ryan O'Reilly and Erik Haula also scored for the Predators (36-31-9), who have won 15 consecutive games against San Jose dating back to December 10, 2019. Roman Josi and Adam Wilsby each had two assists, and Juuse Saros made 24 saves.

Nashville moved into the second wild-card spot into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, tied in points with the Los Angeles Kings.

“Proud of the group,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “I mean, kind of been built for this. It’s 3-3 going into the third period, blow a little bit of lead, go through some adversity, and then we hung them together like we did all year. There's a lot of belief right now, and I thought the third period kind of got back to our game. It was pretty evident, when we do certain things, the kind of team we can be.”

Nick Leddy had a goal and an assist for the Sharks (36-32-7), who saw their four-game winning streak come to an end. Macklin Celebrini and Alexander Wennberg also scored, and Yaroslav Askarov made 28 saves.

The Sharks are two points behind the Predators for the second wild-card spot.

"We stuck with it. I liked our response in the second. That was probably the one big positive of the game," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. "Obviously disappointed with our third, and just some things we did to kind of shoot ourselves in the foot."

San Jose scored three straight goals to tie the game 3-3 before O'Reilly put Nashville ahead 4-3 at 8:28 of the third period. Luke Evangelista fed O'Reilly at the right face-off circle, and his wrist shot beat Askarov over the glove.

Haula scored a short-handed goal at 17:26 to make it 5-3, picking up a clean bounce of Jost’s pass off the end boards and chipping the puck past Askarov. 

Jost’s empty-net goal at 18:45 made it a 6-3 final.

“Excited. I mean, it's the best time of year to play hockey,” Brunette said. “Get to go into another hard building and play a team we had just played two nights ago, and it's the best time of year to play and we're excited for that challenge.”

Forsberg put the Predators ahead 1-0 with a power-play goal at 8:38 of the first period, scoring on a one-timer from the high slot off a Jonathan Marchessault pass.

Forsberg quickly scored again at 9:54 after Matthew Wood’s one-timer was stopped by Askarov, only to pop up in the air and land behind him for Forsberg to tap in.

“I think just the resiliency that we've shown - obviously, we prefer not to give up a three-goal lead and have to fight back to win, but when we have to, we’ve been able to do that a few times,” Forsberg said. “It shows a lot of strength in the group.”

Stamkos pushed the Predators lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal from the left circle at 16:55.

Leddy scored for the Sharks to make it 3-1 at 15:49 of the second period, wide open in the slot for William Eklund's spinning backhand pass from behind the net.

"It's an incredible pass,” Leddy said. “He’s a great player, high IQ. That pass showed it.”

Celebrini scored from the hashmarks of the right circle to make it 3-2 at 19:41 after Collin Graf circled behind the net before delivering the pass from the right post.

Wennberg tied the game 1:06 into the third period, going end-to-end before putting a backhand through the five-hole on Saros to make it 3-3.

"Saw Marchessault, a forward, so tried to just go around him," Wennberg said. "I mean, obviously it worked out great (at a) big part of the game as well. We were talking about coming out in the third, being hungry. Unfortunately, we didn't find a way to win this game."

NOTES: Predators defenseman Nicolas Hague left the game due to injury and did not return. ...  With his 41st goal of the season, Celebrini passed Auston Matthews (40 in 2016-17), Sylvain Turgeon (40 in 1983-84) and  Dale Hawerchuk (40 in 1982-83) and tied Rick Nash (41 in 2003-04) and Brian Bellows (41 in 1983-84) for the sixth highest single-season total by a teenager in NHL history.