Nashville stays red-hot with 4-2 win over Winnipeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets became the latest victim of the sudden Nashville Predators buzzsaw Wednesday night, dropping a 4-2 decision as the Preds improved to 11-0-2 over their last 13.

The Jets got a great chance to get on the board first when they were sent to the power play just 4:17 into the game. With Mark Scheifele out of the lineup due to illness, Nikolaj Ehlers took his spot on the top power play unit and while they got some decent looks, Nashville killed it off before opening the scoring shortly thereafter.

With the puck in his own end, Roman Josi sent a long stretch pass up the boards to Gustav Nyquist, who got behind Brenden Dillon at the Winnipeg blue line. He walked in and sniped one past Connor Hellebuyck at the 6:38 mark.

Nashville would make it 2-0 at the 14:32 mark when Josi found Kiefer Sherwood cutting into the slot in the Winnipeg zone before Sherwood’s shot beat Hellebuyck high over the blocker. Hellebuyck was screened by Colin Miller on the play.

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The Jets had a great opportunity to cut into the lead later in the first when Adam Lowry, Mason Appleton and Nino Niederreiter had a three-on-one but overpassing and a good backcheck from Filip Forsberg led to no shot on goal.

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Nashville carried the 2-0 lead into the second as both teams registered ten shots on goal in the opening 20.

The Predators dominated the middle frame, outshooting the Jets 19-7 on the back of two power play chances, but no goals were scored as Nashville maintained their 2-0 lead going to the third.

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The dam burst early in the third as the Preds scored two goals in 22 seconds to blow the game open.

The first came after Dillon tried to glove down a puck that was chipped into the Winnipeg end but after he punched it, he lost track of it as it landed in front of the crease. Nyquist got to it first and dropped the puck back to Forsberg, who beat Hellebuyck to make it 3-0 just 1:21 into the third.

Moments later, Jason Zucker was left alone at the side of the net and he banged home a rebound to put the game away. It was his first goal as a Predator after being dealt to Nashville from Arizona at the trade deadline.

Alex Iafallo had a great look to get the Jets on the board roughly 7:30 into the third when he was sprung on a shorthanded breakaway but Juuse Saros turned him aside. Saros also made a great sprawling save to turn Sean Monahan aside moments later.

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With 6:48 to go in the third, Iafallo redirected a point shot through the five-hole of Saros to finally crack the seal but it was immediately waved off by one official. The four men in stripes gathered at centre, decided it was a good goal, then went to video review and came to the same conclusion.

With just under 2:30 remaining, the Jets decided to pull Hellebuyck to try and mount a comeback, and with 1:52 to go the Predators took a penalty. With 10.2 seconds to go, Appleton scored off a rebound and Colin Miller got his first point as a Jet but it was far too late to make a difference.

Hellebuyck turned aside 34 shots in the loss as he allowed three-plus goals for the seventh time in his last nine starts while Saros made 28 saves in victory.

The Jets will close out this three-game homestand Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks.