Nashville Predators ice Avalanche 4-1

October 17th, 2017

NASHVILLE, Tenn, – Nashville Predators are up steam with a four game winning streak when they iced the Colorado Avalanche by a 4-1 final on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. Arvidsson along with 3 Predators found the back of the net to earn the seventh consecutive victory against the Avalanche.

Viktor Arvidsson, Roman Josi, Colton Sissons and Austin Watson all ticked off another checkmark in the scorers column with Josi, Sissons and Watson collecting their first goals of the season. Flaming the fire that is melting more than the Avalanche is Filip Forsberg ho collected two more assists on the night.

Forsberg’s second assist was his 200th career point in just his 270th NHL game.

Roman Josi, who was briefly out due to lower-body injury was a welcome return to the lineup. “Anytime you’re hurt, you miss playing with the guys, being on the ice for games,” Josi said. “It felt good to be back, and more importantly, we got the win.”

Alexei Emelin also had two assists and Pekka Rinne made 20 saves to earn his third victory of the season.

Scoring

The first period sluggish play continues to hinder the Predators momentum, however, they turned it up in the second and third with more energy and traffic in front of the net. “We picked it up in the second and third,” Nashville Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “Puck battles, I thought were 50-50 and we could’ve done a little bit better of a job in the first period, but it wasn’t a bad period. In the second, and third, I really thought we played a pretty good game. We got it up to speed, got going, the power play looked good tonight, they were moving the puck well; lots of positives.”

Nathan McKinnon had the lone goal at 4:09 in the second period for Colorado but it wasn’t enough as the Avs earned their second straight loss. “The first five games, it was good,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We were a hard-working group. We were really competitive in those first five game and I feel like it has kind of slacked off a little bit here in the last couple. We’ve got to find a way to rebound.” McKinnon’s goal was a fluke shot from the left of the face-off circle. As it neared the goal, the puck deflected off of Josi’s skate and slid past Rinne who had 20 saves for the night.

Slickest Score

Arvidsson speed paired with solid technical skills answered McKinnon with his own goal  at 7:07 in the  second period. Arvidsson’s slick skating moves put him in place to receive the assist from Forsberg. “That’s just the great thing about him,” Forsberg said of Arvidsson, his Swedish countryman. “He passes to you and you look up and he’s ahead of you and you pass it back.” The two Predators are obviously have fun skating on the same line. Arvidsson stated that he is just having fun “I was just trying to work hard, be out there and make things happen,” Arvidsson said. “Today, I felt great.”

Other Scores

With Nashville on a two-man advantage, Josi slid down to the right side and collected the rebound off an Arvidsson shot and beat Varlamov for his first of the season. “To get that opportunity with the two-man is always important,”

Sissons, in the slot, received a pass from Craig Smith , where he slipped a backhand between Varlamov’s pads. Watson scored the only goal of the third at 4:08 after collecting the rebound of an Emelin shot.

Power Play

The off-season power play rehab has placed the Predators early in the season as the 3rd best NHL power play with a 29.2% success rate. They were 1-5 with the man advantage against the Avalanche. Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “If you kill it, the momentum could swing their way. If you can cash in, you can swing it your way, so those opportunities are big.” Sissons made it 3-1 at 19:15 of the second with the teams skating four aside in a goal scored in similar fashion to Arvidsson’s.

NOTES:

Nashville is 3-0-0 at home this season.

Forsberg, who has at least one point in four consecutive games and recorded his 200th career NHL point.

Colorado C Colin Wilson played his first-ever game against Nashville. The former 2008 first round draft pick played the first 502 games of his NHL career for the Predators.

Rinne is 21-7-2 lifetime against the Avalanche.

UP NEXT:

Avalanche: Hosts St. Louis on Thursday.
Predators: At Philadelphia on Thursday.