Forsberg, Evangelista Power Nashville Predators to 5-2 Win over Toronto Maple Leafs

The Nashville Predators (26-35-8, 60 points) snapped a four-game skid with a 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs (42-25-3, 87 points) Saturday at Bridgestone Arena.

After falling behind 2-0 early, Nashville scored five unanswered goals to to earn the win. Luke Evangelista (1 goal, 2 assists) and Filip Forsberg (2 goals, 1 assist) led the Predators with three points apiece. Fedor Svechkov also recorded a pair of assists for Nashville.

Juuse Saros made 24 saves for Nashville in the win, while Toronto's Joseph Woll made 27 saves in the loss.

Forsberg-O'Reilly-Evangelista
Bunting-Stamkos-Marchessault
Smith-Svechkov-Bellows
L'Heureux-McCarron-Sissons

Skjei-Blankenburg
Del Gaizo-Barron
Englund-Stastney

Saros
Annunen

Extra: Vrana, Oesterle
IR: Josi, Wilsby, Lauzon

Nashville's first penalty of the game proved costly, as a high-sticking call on Luke Evangelista against Matthew Knies gave way to a John Tavares power-play goal just 11 seconds into the man advantage. After the face-off, Auston Matthews won a puck battle along the boards and passed to Mitch Marner. Marner fed the puck to Tavares, who skated through the slot and fired a shot through traffic to give Toronto the 1-0 lead at the 9:16 mark of the first period.

Just under four minutes later, Matthews won an offensive zone face-off and immediately put the puck on the stick of Marner, who fired it home to extend Toronto's lead to 2-0 at the 13:05 mark.

Knies was whistled for interference against Nick Blankenburg as time expired at the end of the first period, setting Nashville up for a power play opportunity to start the second.

The Predators capitalized on the man advantage when Fedor Svechkov won a puck battle behind the net, cut across and flipped a backhand pass to Michael Bunting, who roofed it at the 1:39 mark to cut the Maple Leafs' lead to 2-1.

Bunting's goal was his first as a member of the Predators. Nashville acquired him earlier this month in the trade that sent Tommy Novak and Luke Schenn to the Pittsburgh Penguins while Bunting was still on IR recovering from an appendectomy.

Kieffer Bellows tied things up at the 9:15 mark with a wrist shot that beat Woll cleanly from the right side. Svechkov won another puck battle to earn his second assist of the night and punched it out to Cole Smith, who fed it to Bellows in transition to set up the play.

Filip Forsberg scored the go-ahead goal for Nashville with less than a minute remaining in the second, poking in his own rebound to give the Predators a 3-2 lead at the 19:13 mark.

Evangelista padded the lead for Nashville midway through the third period, putting home a cross-crease pass from Forsberg to make it 4-2 at 10:17.

Forsberg scored into the empty net with 37 seconds remaining in regulation for the 5-2 final.