Ryan Ufko scored his first career NHL goal and Juuse Saros made a season-high 43 saves as the Nashville Predators rallied for a 4-2 victory against the host Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night.
Tyson Jost, Reid Schaefer and Steven Stamkos also scored and Jonathan Marchessault had two assists for the Predators, who evened their record on their five-game trip at 1-1-0 and pulled within a point of Seattle for the Western Conference’s second and final wild-card berth.
Kaapo Kakko and Matty Beniers scored for the Kraken, who lost their third in a row and play host to league-leading Colorado on Thursday in the finale of a six-game homestand. Joey Daccord stopped 23 of 26 shots.
The Predators scored three unanswered goals in the second period to take a 3-2 lead before Stamkos iced the victory with an empty-netter at 19:55 of the third.
Jost got Nashville on the board at 4:14 of the second. Fedor Svechkov carried the puck down the right wing, cut toward the slot and fired a pass to Jost on the left wing for a wrist shot over a sprawling Daccord.
The Predators tied it at 10:19 as Matthew Wood skated down the slot and between two defenders before setting up Schaefer for a tap-in from the top of the crease.
Ufko, a defenseman playing in his fourth career game, gave the Predators the lead at 14:25, weaving his way through three defenders before faking out Daccord and tucking a forehand shot just inside the right post.
The Kraken outshot Nashville 19-7 in the first period while taking a 2-0 lead.
Kakko opened the scoring just 2:14 into the contest. Saros stopped Shane Wright’s shot from the right-wing corner, but Kakko put the rebound into the net from just outside the top of the crease.
Beniers doubled the advantage on a wrister at 9:46 from a sharp angle on the right wing that beat Saros high inside the near post.
The Kraken’s Jaden Schwartz missed the game and is out indefinitely after taking a skate to the face Saturday against Ottawa. Fellow forward Bobby McMann, acquired in a trade Friday with Toronto, is still waiting processing on his work visa and remains unavailable.
–Field Level Media
