CHICAGO (AP) — The rivalry between the Nashville Predators and Chicago Blackhawks isn't much of a rivalry these days.
It belongs to the Predators at the moment.
Ryan O'Reilly scored in regulation and the shootout, and Nashville handed Chicago its fourth consecutive loss with a 4-3 victory over the Blackhawks on Tuesday night.
“Obviously not as sharp as we have been,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “It was a hard game to play. There's going to be games during the season that are going to be like this. We were able to scrape and crawl and get two (points) out of it.”
Gustav Nyquist and Filip Forsberg also converted their chances as Nashville went 3 for 3 in the tiebreaker against Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom. Connor Bedard scored in the shootout for Chicago, but Tyler Johnson was stopped by Juuse Saros.
Luke Evangelista and Mark Jankowski also scored for Nashville in regulation. Saros made 25 stops in regulation and overtime.
“We're not a team that wants to play that river hockey kind of style, back and forth, but it's going to happen sometimes,” Evangelista said, “and we were able to kind of get to our game and get a win.”
The Predators won for the eighth time in 10 games. They also improved to 21-4-4 in their last 29 games against the Blackhawks.
It was the first shootout game for each team this season.
“We're tenacious. ... We're hard on pucks,” Jankowski said. “We don't stop moving our feet all over the ice.”
Nick Foligno had two goals and an assist for Chicago, which has lost five of six overall. Jason Dickinson also scored, and Soderblom made 27 saves through OT.
Chicago had a chance to go in front about seven minutes into the third period, but Nashville defenseman Roman Josi swept a loose puck away from the goal line behind Saros.
“I like some of our game ... but we have lapses in our mentality where we're just not as tenacious as we need to be,” Foligno said. “That's when teams pounce.”
Nashville trailed 1-0 before Evangelista and Jankowski scored 26 seconds apart in the second period. Evangelista knocked one home from in close, and Jankowski cleaned up a rebound at 2:37 after Colton Sissons drove to the net.
It was Jankowski's first goal of the season and No. 50 for his career. He was recalled from the minors on Sunday.
Foligno then had a hand in back-to-back goals for Chicago. First, he set up Dickinson's wrist shot from the left circle that beat Saros on the goaltender's stick side. Then Foligno flipped in a rebound of a Joey Anderson shot for a 3-2 lead at 5:21.
Foligno, who also scored in the first, had no goals and four assists in his previous 13 games.
O'Reilly capped the wild middle period with his 12th goal in his first season with Nashville. The veteran center tied it at 3 when he converted a backhand on a power play with 7:01 left.
UP NEXT
Predators: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
Blackhawks: Host the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Jay Cohen, The Associated Press
