The Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild duked it out in their final game of the regular season on Saturday night. Nashville came out on top 6-3 to win their second game on the current homestand.
“They showed how tight of a group they are, they’re going to stick up for each other, and protect each other,” head coach Andrew Brunette said. “I’m not surprised but it was good to see them all come together and protect one of their own.”
Knuckles were thrown in the first seven minutes of the game as there were three separate fights. All stemmed from the animosity toward Zach L’Heureux after his slew-foot on Jared Spurgeon back on New Year’s Eve in Minnesota.
The first fight was between L’Heureux and Yakov Trenin. Nashville’s rookie was 12 seconds into his first shift before throwing his gloves off and fighting Trenin.
“Just wanted to get it out of the way. Had a feeling it was going to happen,” L’Heureux said. “It was early, nothing too crazy. I was still able to play my game and move past it.”
On the next faceoff in Nashville’s end, it was Luke Schenn and Marcus Foligno who fought as well. It was a heavyweight bout between two skaters who weigh over 220 pounds.
“Right from the get-go, there was a little talk heading into the game, coming from the previous game there, the mistake on Zach’s behalf. He had to man up to it and did a great job,” Schenn said. “It’s water under the bridge and you hope that Spurgeon gets healthy and gets back in the lineup.”
The Wild then struck first as defenseman David Jiricek found the back of the net five minutes later. Matt Boldy and Jiricek drove up the ice for a two on one and after a pass from Boldy, the young defenseman buried his first goal of the season.
Nashville answered back as they continued to generate offensive chances. Michael McCarron set up Colton Sissons for the fifth of the year as he was driving in on Fleury.
McCarron was fending off Zach Bogosian and he tapped the puck to Sissons who finished a strong play on offense to even it up 1-1 in the first frame.
As the action continued, so did the physical play. L’Heureux almost connected for a huge open-ice hit on Marco Rossi. Minnesota’s top-line center tripped right at the blue line before L’Heureux could lay his hit and in response, Brock Faber went after him.
Now L’Heureux almost catches Marco Rossi but he trips. Brock Faber assessed a roughing call in response to the attempted hit. pic.twitter.com/9WHrLirsKA
— Nick Kieser🏒 (@KieserNick) January 19, 2025
Nashville went to the powerplay where Filip Forsberg scored his 81st powerplay goal, surpassing Shea Weber’s franchise record of 80. After the opening stanza, the Predators led the Wild 2-1.
The offense continued to be relentless as just 54 seconds into the second period Steven Stamkos beat Fleury to make it three unanswered goals from the Predators.
Then Fedor Svechkov took advantage of his positioning in front of the net as Tommy Novak dished him a pass as he was about to skate around the net. Svechkov scored his fourth goal of the season and first at home as a member of the team.
Nashville led 4-1 after just 22 minutes of action.
Minnesota mustered 11 shots on net in the second period while Nashville continued to dominate possessing the puck and holding strong defensively.
Adam Wilsby was called for delay of game two minutes into the final frame and Minnesota took advantage. Defenseman Brady Skjei was battling in front and then got tied up with Saros, taking his goalie out of the play.
Matt Boldy put the puck into the wide-open net to cut Minnesota’s deficit down to 4-2.
Nashville and Minnesota traded chances throughout the rest of the game. Saros made 10 saves in the third period and 27 overall en route to his 11th win of the season.
The icing on the cake for Nashville came with 3:40 left as Forsberg scored his second goal of the game to make it 5-3. Brady Skjei scored on the empty net to give Nashville a 6-3 win.
“You’re extremely proud of them coming together and being a team,” Brunette said. “To me hopefully this is a little bit of a defining moment that kick-starts us here. We’ve been playing better in the last six weeks. Something like that makes your group even tighter.
Notes
-Forsberg has now registered a five-game goal streak for the fourth time in his career. He’s the sixth Swedish player to have that many streaks in his career. He joins Mika Zibanejad (4x), William Nylander (5x), Daniel Sedin (4x), Kent Nilsson (4x) and Mats Sundin (5).
-Forsberg extended his goal streak to five games, which is the longest active run in the NHL and matched Jonathan Marchessault (6-2—8 in 5 GP) for the longest run by a Predators player in 2024-25.
-Josi extended his point streak to five games with two assists on Saturday. He’s up to one goal and six assists across that span.
-Stamkos extends his goal streak to three games with four finding the back of the net.
Follow Nick Kieser on Twitter/X: @KieserNick
Photos courtesy of the Nashville Predators
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