Sharks give up early lead, lose to Predators 8-2
Michael McCarron scored two goals, Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg each had a goal and two assists and the Nashville Predators pulled away in the third period for an 8-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night, extending the team's point streak to a franchise record-tying 15 games.
Jason Zucker, Luke Evangelista, Mark Jankowski and Tommy Novak also scored and Juuse Saros made 18 saves for Nashville, which is 13-0-2 over its last 15 games. Kiefer Sherwood and Ryan McDonagh had three assists each. Nashville was 14-0-1 between Feb. 19 and March 19, 2018.
"I'm really proud of the group," Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. "It wasn't going to be easy, but we dug in a little bit deeper and we found our game."
Mario Ferraro had a goal and an assist, Mikael Granlund also scored and Magnus Chrona made 32 saves for San Jose, 1-12-2 over its last 15.
"It was 4-2 with 10 minutes to go and you think all you need is to get one and it's a game," San Jose coach David Quinn said. "Then we give up four goals in the last 10 minutes and that's really disappointing. Really disappointing."
Josi scored the game's first goal with 8:42 remaining in the opening period.
Off an offensive zone faceoff win, Ryan McDonagh sent a pass from the left point to Josi at the right point, where he beat Chrona with a one-timer for his 18th goal of the season.
Granlund evened it with 2:42 remaining in the first with a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot.
"We had a good 30 minutes and bad next 30 minutes, that was pretty much it," Granlund said.
Ferraro gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead at 5:46 of the second with a wrist shot from above the right circle that beat Saros on the far side.
Zucker tapped home the rebound at 9:37 of the second. It was Zucker's second goal as a Predator since being acquired from the Arizona Coyotes on trade deadline day.
"The first period obviously wasn't our best," Zucker said. "It was good to come out in the second, get that tying goal, and I felt like we just turned the page and started playing our game after that."
Nashville regained the lead with 4:34 remaining in the second, when McCarron buried the rebound of Sherwood's shot from the slot.
"Went to the net hard and sometimes the puck ends up on your stick like that, so it was good," McCarron said.
Evangelista followed with 2:10 remaining in the second, converting on a nice backhand from the slot that beat Chrona high to the stick side.
McCarron scored his second of the game with 9:25 left in the third and Jankowski, Forsberg and Novak also scored in the final period to help Nashville pull away.
UP NEXT
Sharks: Host Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
Predators: Visit Florida Thursday night.
