Preds extend franchise-record road point streak to 10 games
Calle Jarnkrok scored with 1:51 remaining in regulation and the Nashville Predators completed a perfect 3-0-0 road trip by defeating the Chicago Blackhawks by a 3-1 final on Thursday night at the United Center.
The victory was No. 30 on the season for Nashville and gives the club 71 points overall. The Preds also extended their franchise record for consecutive road games with at least a point, having done so in the last 10 contests away from home (8-0-2 record).
The win was also the first for the Predators in Chicago since March of 2014, a stretch of seven games, including the postseason. That fact made Thursday's triumph a bit sweeter.
"Anytime you beat Chicago, it's a good win," Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. "They're a good hockey team. Year after year, they're pressing in the playoffs, they're pressing for their division, so it's never an easy thing coming in here and our guys played really hard tonight. We seemed to get better as the game went on, our third was our smartest period and our best period, just defensively and methodically, just taking care of the minutes and eventually, we were able to chip one in. it was a huge goal at the end."
Pekka Rinne made 13 saves in the first period, including two stellar stops on Blackhawks Captain Jonathan Toews, to keep the game scoreless, but Brent Seabrook gave Chicago a 1-0 lead at 5:27 of the middle frame.
Nashville got it back, as Viktor Arvidsson tallied his seventh of the season less than four minutes later, when he crashed the net and chipped a Mike Fisher rebound over an outstretched Corey Crawford to even the score. Rinne then stopped Andrew Shaw on a breakaway as the second period ticked away, a moment that Laviolette called a turning point in the game.
The score remained stagnant until the 18:09 mark of the final frame, when Jarnkrok one-timed a Fisher feed over Crawford for the first Preds lead of the night. Miikka Salomaki then iced it with an empty netter before the night was done.
"Calle, huge goal," Rinne said. "Only 1:50 left to go and it was nice to see that go in, and then obviously [Salomaki] putting in the empty netter... He just took a risk and just fired it down the ice and that was a big goal."
"Huge goal; really nice shot too," defenseman Roman Josi said of Jarnkrok's tally. "And Pekka was our best player tonight. He played unreal, especially in the first. He made a lot of great saves and we definitely needed him tonight.
