.The Rangers went 0 for 4 on the power play, with Saros stopping all 11 shots during the man advantages.Nashville was outshot 15-8 in the first period and 13-7 in the second, but scored twice in the middle period to take a 3-1 lead heading to the third.With the score tied at 1 after 20 minutes, Panarin nearly gave the Rangers the lead early in the second period. His shot hit a goalpost, and the spinning puck dropped on the goal line but didn't cross it. The no-goal was confirmed by a review.Panarin also had a shot hit the left post about seven minutes into the middle period.Josi then gave the Predators their second lead. He brought the puck up the right side, skated into the right circle and fired a shot between the legs of defenseman Adam Fox and past Georgiev for his eighth with 9:44 remaining in the period.Just after a cross-checking penalty expired on Ekholm, the defenseman joined the play, brought the puck up the right side, skated toward the middle and beat Georgiev into the top left corner for his fifth with 3:37 left in the second.Kyle Turris hit a goalpost for Nashville 7 1/2 minutes into the third, and Saros made a nice stop on Mika Zibanejad's shot from the right side midway through the period to keep it a two-goal game.Panarin pulled the Rangers within one as he got a pass from Zibanejad and fired it past Saros for his 20th with 2:42 left.However, Josi sealed it with an empty-netter 53 seconds later for his second of the night and ninth of the season. Ellis added another empty-netter in the closing seconds.Grimaldi got the Predators on the scoreboard first. On a rush with Josi, Grimaldi brought the puck up the left side, went toward the middle and fired a shot that went off the shin of Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei and trickled past Georgiev for his fourth with 9:24 left in the opening period.The Rangers tied it just 34 seconds later when Zibanejad brought the puck up the middle off a turnover, crossed the blue line and passed left to Kreider, who quickly beat Saros for his eighth.Skjei had a chance to get the Rangers the lead with about five minutes left, but his attempts in front where stopped by Saros. New York was also stopped on several tries in front about 90 seconds later.NOTES: Zibanejad has five points (four goals, one assist) in a three-game point streak. ... Kreider has two goals and three assists in his last five games. ... Panarin snapped a four-game point streak in which he had six goals and two assists. ... Predators F Victor Arvidsson, recovering from a lower body injury sustained on Nov 23, skated with the team and could be ready to return by the end of the four-game trip. ... Grimaldi has three goals and six points in his last 10 games. ... Josi got his first goals since he had two against Chicago on Nov. 16.UP NEXTPredators: At the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.Rangers: Host Toronto on Friday night,---Follow Vin Cherwoo at www.twitter.com/VinCherwoo---More NHL: https://www.apnews.com/NHL and https://www.twitter.com/-Sports)
Last week, the New York Rangers began a four-game West Coast swing with four points in three games, inciting aspirations of a six-point trip. They came close but ended the trip with one point in a 4-3 shootout loss in Anaheim on Saturday.After a fairly successful trip, the Rangers return home Monday night to face the Nashville Predators, who are coming off one of their worst showings of the season."We wanted six points, but I guess taking five isn't a bad trip," Rangers coach David Quinn told reporters after his club won 5-0 in Vegas, lost 3-1 in Los Angeles and won 6-3 in San Jose before the finale against the Ducks. "You can't do what everybody else is doing if you want to do something special." Saturday's loss -- a game in which the Rangers led 2-0 and 3-2 before giving up the tying goal with 1:42 left in regulation -- continued a trend of alternating wins and losses for the Rangers. They are 4-3-2 in their last nine games since going 9-4-1 from Oct. 29 to Nov. 27.The uneven play for New York is coming at a time when Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad are consistently producing points.Panarin scored New York's second goal Saturday to give him six goals and eight points on the trip, giving him 15 goals and 36 points in his last 25 games. Zibanejad scored twice Saturday, including 10 seconds into the game, and has seven goals and 10 points since returning after missing a month with an upper-body injury on Nov. 27.The Predators head to New York coming off a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday that saw them get booed off the ice by their home crowd. Nashville allowed all four goals in a span of 11:23, including a short-handed goal on a breakaway, and lost its second straight game despite outshooting Dallas by a wide 38-22 margin."The mistakes we're making, they're costing us," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "They're too big. We need to quiet the game down defensively just from a quality (shots allowed) standpoint, not a quantity standpoint." Nashville heads into a four-game trip in a slump that has lasted for more than a month. Since getting off to an 8-3-1 start following a 3-0 win over Chicago on Oct. 29, the Predators are 6-9-4 in their last 19 contests."It's been a rough go for too long," Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne said. "Another tough loss, especially at home. By the end of the game, there was probably half the people left in the arena and it makes me embarrassed by the results at home." Austin Watson scored for Nashville on Saturday, but others continued struggling to get goals of late.Filip Forsberg has two goals in his last 13 games since scoring in four straight games from Nov. 4-12. Defenseman Roman Josi leads the Predators with 26 points but has not had a goal in his last 12 games and has two goals in his last 20.The Rangers are 7-3-0 in the past 10 meetings between these two, posting a 2-1 victory in Nashville on Nov. 2 when backup Alexandar Georgiev made 32 saves.--Field Level Media
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