SEATTLE (AP) — Throughout its current points streak, different stars for Nashville have taken their turns carrying the Predators on a given night.
This time, it was Roman Josi. Again.
“It’s the reason, in my opinion, why he’s the world’s best defenseman,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “He just does stuff like he did today and takes over games.”
Josi scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the third period, Filip Forsberg scored his 35th of the season into an empty net with 1:20 left and the Predators extended their points streak to 14 games with a 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night.
The streak is tied for the second-longest in franchise history, equaling a 14-game run during the 2015-16 season. Nashville earned points in 15 straight during the 2017-18 season, a stretch during which it went 14-0-1.
The Predators are 12-0-2 during this stretch and strengthened their hold on the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
“The points streak is awesome because you need the points, but just the way we’ve been playing, it’s a lot of fun,” Josi said. “I feel like every night we’re working really hard, we’re playing fast and it’s like every guy.”
Josi snapped a 1-1 tie when he scored 9 seconds into a Nashville power play at 3:59 of the period. Josi’s second goal came off an offensive zone faceoff and his slap shot from the blue line beat Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer, who was screened on the play.
It was Josi’s second multi-goal game in the last few weeks after he netted a pair in a win over Ottawa that was the sixth game as part of Nashville’s points streak.
Tommy Novak also scored his 14th of the season in the first period off a fortunate bounce when his pass hit the skate of Seattle defenseman Justin Schultz and slipped past Grubauer. Mark Jankowski and Ryan McDonagh both had two assists.
Seattle lost its fourth straight – all at home — and may have officially fallen off the fringes of the chase for a wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Grubauer made 26 saves and Andre Burakovsky scored Seattle’s lone goal in the final seconds of a power play early in the third period. But that was all Seattle could manage as it remained nine points behind Vegas with 16 games left.
“The last couple of games obviously haven’t been going our way. But I think we just have to keep putting our foot forward. We’re still fighting over here,” Seattle forward Kailer Yamamoto said.
Nashville’s Juuse Saros appeared vulnerable early, but Seattle was unable to convert a couple of good chances in the opening minutes, including defenseman Jamie Oleksiak hitting the post. But the Predators did a good job defensively in limiting Seattle’s scoring chances and Saros made the key stops when needed.
Saros finished with 22 saves.
Seattle was without top defenseman Vince Dunn for the fifth straight game and forward Jaden Schwartz missed his third in a row. Both have upper body injuries.
