The Nashville Predators ended their back-to-back road trip Saturday with a 7-2 loss against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. They're now 6-4 in their last ten games as they continue to close in on a wildcard spot.
Roman Josi had two points, Ryan O'Reilly played his 1200 career NHL game, and Justus Annunen saved 29 of 36 shots faced.
"It definitely got away from us. The first period, they had a lot of really good looks, a lot of chances. They kind of dominated, I felt like we got the game a little better in the second. And then we just kind of stopped defending, and we can't do that."Roman Josi, Per Brooks Bratten
Nashville [23-21-4] scored first late in the opening period at 5:50 when Josi made a shot on Vegas [24-11-12] goalie Akira Schmid, and Luke Evangelista tipped it for the goal.
The Predators held onto the lead going into the second period. Both teams couldn't find the back of the net, that was until Golden Knights winger Alexander Holtz scored his second of the year at 2:43. Vegas broke the deadlock not too long after at 1:38 when Shea Theodore wristed one from the faceoff circle to make it 2-1.
The Knights continued the pressure in the third period after Pavel Dorofeyev added another tally for the home squad at 14:08. Mark Stone pushed it even further with his own tally, extending his point-streak to 11 games.
Cole Reinhardt scored his third NHL goal at 7:34 and Mitch Marner added on at 6:44, putting the score at 6-1. Keegan Kolesar scored the final goal for Vegas at 4:48.
A late power play goal from Forsberg at 0:22 added one more for the Predators but it was too late as they fell 7-2.
"We played two really good teams, obviously won last night, and wish we had a better showing tonight. I think tonight showed us again that we know how we have to play. We know what it takes to win, the way we have to play, and when we get away from that, we're not going to be successful. So, it was a good lesson."Roman Josi, Brooks Bratten
Josi now has three goals and seven assists in his last four games. Nashville is now 20.3% on the power play and 80.1% on the penalty kill.
The Predators will head back to Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday to begin their three-game homestand, starting with the Buffalo Sabres [26-16-5].