ST. LOUIS – The Nashville Predators knew they were going to be in for a hard-fought, physical battle against the reigning Stanley Cup Champions.
The Predators were ready for their latest visit to St. Louis.
Nashville’s Mikael Granlund scored a power-play goal early in the third period of Saturday’s game after the Blues had rallied from a two-goal deficit to forge a tie, and the Predators held on for a 4-3 victory.
Viktor Arvidsson, Matt Duchene, and Kyle Turris also scored for Nashville, which improved to 3-0 this season against the Blues.
With Carl Gunnarsson serving a penalty for holding, Granlund took the rebound from a Roman Josi shot from the point and pushed it through Jake Allen’s legs to give Nashville the lead for good 3:59 into the third period. Granlund’s 14th goal of the season was his fourth in his past six games.
“Maybe there’s been situations earlier this season when they come back and we let down a little bit,” Granlund said. “I think we just kept playing, and then we earned one goal in the third that won us the game. It’s just a mentality to keep playing the way we need to play.”
Jusse Saros made 23 saves to improve to 11-9-4 this season. He has won five of his past six decisions and is now 4-3-1 lifetime against St. Louis.
“I thought we came into the game really mentally prepared,” Predators coach John Hynes said. “I liked the fact we had good mental toughness, good focus. I thought in the third period we found a way to win the game, and that’s the most important part at this time of year.”
The contest included a pair of fights in the first nine minutes as Nashville’s Filip Forsberg squared off against Brayden Schenn 4:54 into the game, followed by Predators defenseman Jarred Tinordi stepping in for Arvidsson to tangle with Robert Bortuzzo 4:05 later.
“We knew it was going to be a battle,” Forsberg said. “They brought it. We answered the bell.”
Allen surrendered four goals on 27 shots to fall to 8-6-3 in just his fourth home start of the season. St. Louis is 2-6-3 in its past 11 games.
“I’m not going to sit here and question our team’s work ethic tonight and competitiveness,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “It was high and they played hard – came up short.”
Arvidsson put Nashville on top 6:29 into the first period when he one-timed a pass from Granlund past Allen for his 13th goal of the season. It was Arvidsson’s first goal in his past nine games as he returned to St. Louis for the first time since incurring a lower body injury after Robert Bortuzzo cross-checked him into the net on Nov. 23.
“I was rattled last time we were here and kind of rattled today, too,” Arvidsson said. “I just try to go out there and make a difference, and I thought I did that.”
Duchene made it 2-0 at 12:23 when he skated in and pushed the puck past Allen on the stick side for his 12th goal of the season.
Zach Sanford cut the deficit to 2-1 when he one-timed a pass from Sammy Blais past Saros 4:13 into the second period for his 13th goal of the season.
Turris responded 21 seconds later when his wrist shot eluded Allen for a 3-1 lead.
St. Louis again pulled within a goal less than two minutes later when Jaden Schwartz deflected Brayden Schenn’s shot past Saros on a power play.
Jordan Kyrou tied the game at 3 when he intercepted a Predators clearing attempt from in front of the net and pushed it past Saros for his second goal midway through the second period.
“I think we’re not playing a full 60 minutes,” Sanford said. “We’re running around a little bit, and then I think after that we took over the game for the majority of it, and unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”
St. Louis has allowed at least three goals in its past 11 games and has allowed a league-leading 71 goals since Dec. 27.
Josi now has 23 points (5 goals, 18 assists) in 39 career games against St. Louis.
The Predators host the Blues in a rematch Sunday night.