The Blackhawks took an early penalty and Filip Forsberg got the scoring started right after that, setting a new high-water mark for the Nashville Predators with his 44th of the season. (Luke Evangelista made sure to get the puck for him.) Some back and forth play, and some hostilities after a hit on Alex Carrier, filled the next ten minutes, before Dante Fabbro took a penalty of his own.
The Preds got the penalty killed off and went back on the attack, and with 57 seconds left in the period Kiefer Sherwood pounced on a puck that Blackhawks goalie Arvid Söderblom couldn’t control and got it into the net to put the Preds up by two. Söderblom was visibly frustrated after the goal, but the Blackhawks weren’t ready to lie down and die; they pushed back strongly on the next shift, making Kevin Lankinen have to look sharp.
Nashville finished that period smoothly, but Roman Josi opened the second by tripping Nick Foligno. Again they killed the penalty off and counterattacked. Ryan Donato almost scored on a breakaway, but Lankinen made a sprawling save to keep him off the board, and the Preds resumed.
Forsberg added another goal in a comedic fumble that had him kicking the puck to himself along the way to getting it into the net, but still counted. Evangelista almost managed to add another a few minutes later, but Söderblom just barely had it. The Preds got another power play as Josi managed to draw a slashing penalty, and although the Blackhawks managed to get it out of their zone with a good shift, Jason Zucker got it back into the zone and into the net, scoring the Preds’ fourth at 9:39.
Connor Bedard, who’d taken that penalty, drew one from Tommy Novak at 15:24 and a second from Colton Sissons 29 seconds later. Nashville gave up a goal to Philipp Kurashev, who scored on a clean one-timer at 16:57, but was able to kill off the rest of Sissons’s penalty once the two-skater disadvantage ended.
Lankinen made a showstopping save on a great setup by Connor Murphy, robbing Tyler Johnson of a goal with seconds left in the second period and letting the Preds finish on a strong note again. Alex Vlasic started the third off antagonizing the referees, and Forsberg completed his hat trick on the power play at 1:37.
The Preds ran away with the first half of the third period, though Söderblom kept the score from getting more out of hand, but as the game ran on the overall energy started to drop. The game trickled slowly toward the end, with a late flurry from the Blackhawks that forced Lankinen to get back to work. With just under a minute left, Jeremy Lauzon and Nick Foligno exchanged hostilities after a Lauzon hit and both headed to the showers.
The game, too, ended not long after Lauzon and Foligno’s nights. The Preds are back in action tomorrow in their final home game of the season.