Juuse Saros made 28 saves and the Nashville Predators defeated the visiting San Jose Sharks 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg and Mikael Granlund scored for the Predators, who won their second straight game. Roman Josi had two assists, giving him six points (one goal, five assists) over his past two games.
Timo Meier scored his fourth goal of the season and James Reimer made 23 saves for the Sharks, who have lost two games in a row after winning four straight to open the season.
San Jose’s Nick Bonino was called for tripping just 61 seconds into the game, and Nashville capitalized.
Josi fed Duchene, who entered the offensive zone and beat Reimer with a wrist shot from the high slot at 1:20 of the period for his second goal of the season.
Josi picked up another assist at 12:31 of the second period when he took a pass in the right circle from Dante Fabbro and fed Forsberg in the middle as the Predators made it 2-0.
In the opening minutes of the third period, Josi’s bid for a goal was thwarted when Reimer blocked his shot from the slot.
Saros made back-to-back saves on Meier early in the third period to maintain the 2-0 lead.
Meier and the Sharks finally broke through at 11:54 of the period. Saros blocked Meier’s initial back-hand attempt, but Meier batted the rebound out of the air and past Saros.
Predators forward Ryan Johansen made a huge defensive play when he used his stick to block Jonathan Dahlen’s shot that appeared headed into the net.
Reimer kept the Sharks alive when he stopped Philip Tomasino on a breakaway with 3:50 remaining.
Reimer left for the extra attacker with 1:30 remaining, and Granlund sent a loose puck in front of the Predators net the length of the ice for the empty-net goal with 53 seconds left.
–Field Level Media
