Saros makes 33 saves, Predators shut out Bruins for 1st win of season

NASHVILLE -- Juuse Saros made 33 saves, and the Nashville Predators ended a five-game skid with their first win of the season, 4-0 against the Boston Bruins at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

It was Saros’ first shutout of the season, and 24th in the NHL.

Ryan O'Reilly and Luke Evangelista each had a goal and an assist, and Roman Josi had two assists for the Predators (1-5-0), who were outscored 23-10 in their first five games.

“It feels very good,” O’Reilly said. “I thought just as a group, as a whole, our intensity was much better. Again, not a perfect game. Still made mistakes, but just the way we kept fighting, we were stronger on battles and talking more. And yeah, we found a way to do it. That’s a great lesson for us, kind of that feeling out there and that intensity is what we have to keep bringing. That’s how we’re going to get out of this hole.”

Jeremy Swayman made 38 saves for the Bruins (3-3-1), who finished 1-1-1 on their three-game road trip.

“Obviously, there’s a lot to work on, but I thought we had a good start,” Boston defenseman Nikita Zadorov said. “I thought the guys were battling hard today. It’s hard to win in this league. We played a really desperate team today. They came out, they played hard. They generated chances. They scored on their chances. We didn’t. That was the difference in the game.”

O’Reilly gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 17:16 of the first period with a power-play goal on a redirection of a shot by Josi.

“You go through a [losing streak] like this, you’ve got to celebrate [a win] a little bit and enjoy it,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “It was well-deserved. I think we were squeezing our sticks and feeling a little bit of the heat, and it could’ve [gone] two different ways. I think today they stayed positive, they encouraged each other, and they helped each other get out of it a little bit here for one game.”

Tommy Novak extended it to 2-0 at 16:55 of the second period on a rebound of a backhand attempt on net from Evangelista. The goal came just after a four-minute power play had expired for Nashville.

Gustav Nyquist pushed it to 3-0 at 12:47 of the third period on a 2-on-1 rush with Filip Forsberg off a pass from O’Reilly.

“Looked a lot better,” Nyquist said. “Obviously there’s still stuff we can be better at, but a very big step in the right direction at least. But again, we’ve got to keep building. Obviously, this is just one game. We’ve dug ourselves a little hole here in the beginning, so back at it on Friday.”

Evangelista scored an empty-net goal at 13:56 for the 4-0 final.

“Just to keep working,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said of his message to the team after the game. “We cannot beat ourselves. It’s a long season. We’ve got to keep grinding. We’ve got to get better and better every day.”

NOTES: Bruins forward Max Jones came into the lineup in place of Justin Brazeau. Jones finished with two minor penalties and zero shots on goal in 11:14 of ice time. … Predators forward Zachary L'Heureux made his NHL debut. A first-round pick (No. 27) in the 2021 NHL Draft, L’Heureux finished with one shot on goal in 9:59 of ice time.