Juuse Saros made 23 saves as Nashville defeated the Seattle Kraken 3-0 Thursday night as the Predators won their home opener to begin their 25th-anniversary season.
Colton Sissons, Gustav Nyquist and Juuso Parssinen scored, the last an empty-netter with 1:41 remaining, as the Predators rebounded from a season-opening, 5-3 loss on Tuesday at Tampa Bay.
Philipp Grubauer was strong in net for Seattle, stopping 32 of 34 shots. However, the Kraken have struggled offensively, scoring just once while losing their first two games of the season.
Nyquist gave the Predators a 2-0 lead as he tallied with an extra attacker on the ice during a delayed penalty call against Seattle at 10:03 of the third period. Nyquist got the puck deep in the right corner and sent a pass to the top of the crease that deflected off the skate of Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson and into the net.
Alexandre Carrier and Ryan McDonagh were credited with assists.
Sissons opened the scoring with a short-handed goal at 10:24 of the second period. Cole Smith picked off a drop pass by the Kraken’s Oliver Bjorkstrand in Seattle’s offensive zone and backhanded a pass ahead to Sissons, who picked up the puck just over the blue line. Sissons shrugged off a check by former Predator Eeli Tolvanen and lifted a backhander over a sprawling Grubauer from close range.
Shortly thereafter, Grubauer lunged across the crease to rob Roman Josi on a wrist shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle and then stopped Filip Forsberg on a breakaway to keep Seattle within a goal.
The Kraken killed off a 90-second Nashville five-on-three power play early in the second after Seattle’s Brian Dumoulin was assessed a slashing penalty with 23 seconds left in the first and Jamie Oleksiak was called for delay of game for backhanding the puck over the boards just seven seconds into the second.
The Predators outshot the Kraken 15-12 in a scoreless first period, with both goalies coming up big.
–Field Level Media
