Preds Beat Blackhawks to Sweep Thanksgiving Trip

Luke Evangelista, Steven Stamkos and Ryan O’Reilly each had a goal and an assist, and the Nashville Predators defeated the Chicago Blackhawks by a 4-3 final on Friday night at United Center. The result sees the Preds sweep their two-game Thanksgiving trip with O’Reilly tallying what proved to be the game-winner on both occasions.

Matthew Wood also scored in the win on Friday, and Juuse Saros made 24 saves to get back in the win column and help his club to a satisfying few days away from home.

“Obviously, we're not where we want to be right now, and we’re looking for something to grab onto and build off of,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “Two hard places to play [in Detroit and Chicago on this trip], two really fast teams, and I thought we managed the game pretty well tonight. We got ourselves a big win, and they’ve been hard to come to in so many of these games. Kind of like tonight, where it's a one-goal game going into the third period, and we've ended up on the wrong end, and it was nice to end up in the right end.”

After the Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, the Preds went to work in the second stanza. First, Wood sniped a shot past Arvid Soderblom for his seventh of the season to even the score, and then Stamkos teamed with Nick Blankenburg for a give-and-go that finished with the veteran forward backhanding a shot into the twine for Nashville’s first lead of the night.

Then, after Chicago tied the game with a power-play marker, Evangelista beat Soderblom for his 100th NHL point and a 3-2 Nashville lead through 40 minutes.

“He’s got a little mojo,” Brunette said of Evangelista, who now has five points in his last three games. “He's feeling it right now. It's good to see. Seems like he's getting better every game; more confident. It's nice to see him get a goal, and he could've had a couple more. But his game's really going.”

In the final frame, Evangelista found O’Reilly on an offensive rush, and No. 90 potted his second in as many games to give the Preds some insurance - and they’d need it as Chicago got back to within one before the night was done.

However, Saros and the Preds turned away Connor Bedard and the Hawks down the stretch to collect consecutive wins for the first time in over a month, and Nashville would love to go for a third when they host Winnipeg tomorrow night.

“We're looking for something to grab onto,” Brunette said. “Winning hasn't been easy. I don't think we're what our record says we are completely, so these are nice to get two. We're kind of just looking at small increments and kind of three-game little stretches. We won two of the last three, and we want to move forward and play a big game again tomorrow night.”

Notes:

Prior to Friday’s game, the Preds recalled forward Reid Schaefer from Milwaukee, and the rookie winger made his NHL debut in Chicago. The 6-foot-5 Schaefer recorded three hits and two blocked shots in 10:22 of ice time in his debut.

Nashville winger Jonathan Marchessault did not play Friday and is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Defensemen Justin Barron and Adam Wilsby were scratched against the Blackhawks.

The Predators will now return home to finish off a back-to-back set by hosting the Winnipeg Jets for a 6 p.m. CT start at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday night.