Predators hold off Golden Knights despite Dorofeyev’s 1st hat trick

NASHVILLE -- Steven Stamkos had two goals and an assist, and the Nashville Predators held off the Vegas Golden Knights despite Pavel Dorofeyev’s first NHL hat trick for a 5-3 win at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

“It was great,” Stamkos said. “I thought the details of our game were on. I thought it was just an extension of most of last game too (a 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday) against a really good opponent and this time the pucks went in the net early and gave us some confidence, some life.”

Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist for the Predators (14-22-7), who had lost two in a row and five of seven (2-5-0). Justus Annunen made 19 saves.

Nashville forward Jonathan Marchessault had an assist in his first game against the Golden Knights since signing a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the Predators on July 1. He spent the previous seven seasons with Vegas, helping the Golden Knights win their first Stanley Cup championship in 2023.

“It was definitely a special game for me,” Marchessault said. “It was weird to see everybody on the other side as those are all guys that I really love and we have a special bond, the whole organization there.”

Dorofeyev scored a natural hat trick between the second and third periods, and Tomas Hertl and Victor Olofsson each had two assists for the Golden Knights (29-12-3), who have lost three of four. Ilya Samsonov made 18 saves.

“I feel like our first period was probably one of our worst this year,” Olofsson said. “I think we played a little bit better in the second where we didn’t really create much except the goals we got there. I think we had like six shots after half the game, and that’s obviously not good enough. You’re kind of just chasing the game from there.”

Stamkos gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 9:44 of the first period, scoring on a loose puck on the blocker side of Samsonov. Golden Knights defenseman Noah Hanifin’s clearing attempt went off Forsberg to Stamkos.

Forsberg extended it to 2-0 at 12:06 of the second period with a wrist shot following a face-off win by Stamkos.

“I’ve never questioned the belief,” Stamkos said. “We’ll leave the mathematics up to you guys and all that stuff. All we can do in here, I mean there’s really no other option than to go out there and at the end of the day you’re a professional athlete. These are the most competitive people in the world so we’re going out there to try to win games.

“Whatever happens, happens, after that, but we’re working hard in practice. The coaching staff is putting together the film packages. We’re coming in here early working on things. We’ve got to go out and perform. If we can keep up the way we’ve gone the last couple games, I like our chances.”

Justin Barron made it 3-0 at 5:29 with a one-timer on the rush off a pass from Roman Josi.

Stamkos pushed it to 4-0 at 8:41 with his second goal of the game, scoring on a wrist shot off a feed from Marchessault.

Dorofeyev cut it to 4-1 at 9:12 on Olofsson’s cross-ice pass. He then made it 4-2 with a power-play goal at 14:02, a one-timer from the right circle.

“[Dorofeyev] has been red hot lately,” Olofsson said. “Obviously good for him to get three goals. We just try to play a little bit more north and take pucks to the net. Obviously [Dorofeyev] shot the puck very well tonight. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get another one, but we also didn’t start very well in the first and kind of worked our way into the game.”

Dorofeyev cut it to 4-3 by completing the natural hat trick at 15:20 of the third period, scoring from the slot off a drop pass from Olofsson.

Ryan O'Reilly scored an empty-net goal with two seconds remaining for the 5-3 final.

“I’ve never seen us that listless and get knocked off pucks and lose battles,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Sometimes when you look around the room and you see you’re a full lineup, you think ‘OK, we’re all set now. We’re good. Everyone’s playing.’ Maybe there was a little bit of that complacency. I don’t know.”

NOTES: Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel had one shot on goal in 19:38 of ice time after missing the previous game because of an illness. … The victory was the 1,000th in team history for the Predators, who became the 27th franchise to reach the milestone. Nashville (2,020 games) is the second-fastest franchise to reach the mark behind the Philadelphia Flyers (2,018 games).