For the first time this season the Nashville Predators have won four in a row after taking down the San Jose Sharks 7-5 on Tuesday night.
This was the first time in franchise history that the Predators completed a four-goal comeback.
“They kept pushing for it. There’s nothing I did, they did it all. They wanted it and they went and got it,” head coach Andrew Brunette said.
It was also Nashville’s first time seeing Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini after he was drafted first overall last summer. He scored on his first shift against the Predators to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead 1:07 into the contest.
Defenseman Justin Barron was caught in the offensive zone trying to make a play along the wall but was unable to keep the puck in front of him. As he result he left a backchecking Roman Josi alone to defend.
Sharks D-man Cody Ceci fed Celebrini a pass who skated down and beat Juuse Saros on his glove side.
“Not a great start, gotta improve on that next game,” Barron said. “I love the way the guys fought in the whole 60. It was a fun third period to be part of.”
Then with eight minutes left in the first frame, Luke Kunin fired a shot bar down past Saros and 14 seconds later Mikael Granlund blasted a one-timer home for his 13th goal of the year as San Jose took a 3-0 lead.
Nashville found the back of the net via a shot from the blue line from Luke Schenn and Tommy Novak cleaned up on the rebound to make it 3-1. Novak broke a 13-game goal drought as he cut the deficit down to two goals.
San Jose ended the first period by seeing defenseman Jake Wallman score his sixth goal of the season. Alexander Wennberg fed him a cross-crease pass to extend the Sharks lead to 4-1 as the opening 20 minutes came to a close.
Goalie Justus Annunen came in for Saros to start the second period, it’s the third time this season that Saros has been taken out of a game.
“He exuded some confidence for our group and was able to make some big saves down the stretch, “Brunette said of Annunen’s play. “Those are hard games for goalies so I commend him big time.”
After trading looks on the powerplay the Sharks continued to pour on the offense as Brady Skjei was called for high-sticking.
Granlund scored his second goal of the game beating Annunen with a low shot to make it 5-1 on the powerplay. To this point, the Sharks had nine shots on goal.
Nashville continued to try and get going on offense and finally found time to effectively move the puck around a powerplay with 11 minutes to go. All it took was 54 seconds to get back into a close game with San Jose.
“We showed a lot of resilience tonight coming back from being down four goals and not quitting on the game,” Barron said. “Not necessarily changing or cheating the game. We stuck to what we’ve had success with lately. I think that’s what helped us come back in this game.”
First, it was Fedor Svechkov who scored on the powerplay to make it 5-2 as Novak had a give-and-go look with him.
After the tic-tac-toe play then it was Barron who dropped down on offense to put home a pass from Filip Forsberg cutting Nashville’s deficit down to 5-3. Barron’s third goal of the season kept Nashville within two after 40 minutes of play.
The comeback continued for Nashville as Jonathan Marchessault scored 28 seconds into the final frame to make it 5-4.
Then five minutes later Josi had a keep-in at the blue line during a powerplay and found himself in the right circle to blast the game-tying goal past Georgiev.
Nashville continued to press the Sharks and then found the top line cycling the puck in the offensive zone. Defenseman Nick Blankenburg got a pass from Novak as he broke into the offensive corner and then scored his second game-winner of the season with a quick shot from the right circle with 8:09 remaining.
“He’s been good, especially when he’s mobile and moving his feet,” Brunette said. “He has a knack for some big plays here for us here in the last month and a half.”
WHAT. A. COMEBACK. @PredsNHL | #Smashville pic.twitter.com/LbQqCczxnq
— Predators On FanDuel Sports Network (@FDSN_Predators) January 22, 2025
Forsberg scored on the empty net for his 16th goal of the season as the Predators completed their comeback over the Sharks.
Up next the Predators head out west to take on the Sharks again then the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday evening. Max Herz and Hal Gill will have the call right here on 102.5 The Game.
“The desperation we’re playing with. Coming together at the end of games and coming up with some big blocks,” Barron said of what needs to carry over moving forward. “Just gotta have a better start than we had today and hopefully we can carry the momentum from the third period tonight into the next game.”
Follow Nick Kieser on Twitter/X: @KieserNick
Photos courtesy of David Janes
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