Juuse Saros, Special Teams Power Nashville Predators to 2-1 Win Over Winnipeg Jets

The Nashville Predators (21-30-7, 49 points) wrapped up their four-game home stand with a 2-1 upset of the first-place Winnipeg Jets (42-15-3, 87 points) Thursday at Bridgestone Arena.

With the loss, the Jets saw their franchise-record 11-game win streak come to an end. The Predators, who had lost two straight heading into Thursday's contest, earned the win without their captain, Roman Josi, who exited Tuesday's loss to the Florida Panthers with an upper-body injury and is currently listed as day-to-day.

Juuse Saros made 23 saves for Nashville in the win, while Winnipeg's Eric Comrie made 28 saves in the loss.

In addition to stellar goaltending from Saros, special teams played a critical role in the win for Nashville. The Predators went 1-for-3 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill, including killing off a nearly two-minute 5-on-3 Jets power play late in the second period.

Forsberg-O'Reilly-Nyquist
Sissons-Stamkos-Marchessault
Novak-Svechkov-Evangelista
Bellows-McCarron-Sissons

Skjei-Blankenburg
Del Gaizo-Schenn
Englund-Barron

Saros
Annunen

Extra: Josi (day-to-day, upper-body), Jankowski (day-to-day, upper-body), L'Heureux (week-to-week, upper-body)

IR: Lauzon, Wilsby

The Predators on Thursday recalled defenseman Marc Del Gaizo from the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals to take Josi's place in the lineup against the Jets.

Nashville's newly reunited top line of Filip Forsberg, Ryan O'Reilly and Gustav Nyquist quickly rekindled their chemistry from last season and combined for the first goal of the game at 4:26 of the first period. After O'Reilly won the face-off in the Jets' zone, Nyquist flipped the puck to Forsberg, who got a quick shot off to give Nashville the early 1-0 lead. 

Nashville weathered the storm and killed off a Forsberg tripping penalty against the Jets' NHL-leading power play (31.7%), but Winnipeg still managed to get one back at even strength when Neal Pionk ripped a one-timer from the point that beat Saros through traffic to tie the game at the 11:05 mark.

The Predators had an answer on the power play later in the period, when a cross-ice pass from Justin Barron found Tommy Novak in front of the net for the score to give Nashville a 2-1 lead at 15:29.

Nashville got into some penalty trouble late in the second period when Colton Sissons was whistled for interference against Mark Scheifele. Just six seconds into the penalty kill, Nick Blankenburg was called for a delay of game penalty (puck over glass), giving Winnipeg 1:54 of a 5-on-3 advantage.

The Jets managed seven shot attempts, including three misses, one blocked by O'Reilly and three stopped by Saros. Nashville successfully killed the penalties and kept the Jets off the board for the remainder of the period to maintain the 2-1 lead.

The Predators held Winnipeg to just four shots on goal in the third period and held on for the 2-1 final.