Preds Return From Olympic Break With Comeback Win Over Blackhawks

The Predators returned from the Olympic break just how they had planned. 

Ryan O’Reilly tallied what proved to be the game-winner, and Nashville came back to beat the Chicago Blackhawks by a 4-2 final on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result sees the Preds get back in the win column after a pair of losses prior to the hiatus, and more importantly, keeps them very much in the thick of the playoff race. 

Filip Forsberg, Matthew Wood and Steven Stamkos also scored for the Preds, and Justus Annunen was excellent in net with 21 saves to help his club to their 27th win of the campaign. 

On a day that began with the Preds preaching urgency in their game from the drop of the puck, they found a way to deliver and do anything but ease their way back into the schedule. 

“It's great to win,” O’Reilly said. “It wasn't the prettiest game by us, but we found a way, and that's huge. We're in this race and need the points, and we wanted to come out and get a big win. We stuck with it. There's some great efforts… We have to be a lot better, especially [against] these teams [we’re going to be] playing, but to get two points, that'll hopefully give us some confidence and move on.”

Forsberg gave the Preds a 1-0 lead in the opening period when he capitalized on a Chicago turnover and sniped a shot past Spencer Knight for his 25th of the season. But in the second stanza, it was Connor Bedard who answered with a goal of his own to even the score through 40 minutes. 

The Blackhawks then took their first lead of the night early in the final frame, but it didn’t last long. In the dying seconds of a Nashville power play, Wood wristed a shot into the top corner of the net to even the score, a goal Brunette called the most important of the game. 

“A huge goal for him,” Brunette said of Wood. “He’s going to be a really important piece here. I love the [trajectory] he's on right now, and it was nice to see him get a goal. I think for him, we always talk about building confidence in different parts of his game, but that's what he can do that's really special.”

Then, off a rush late in regulation, Roman Josi weaved through traffic and found O’Reilly for the go-ahead goal with just over three minutes to play to complete yet another Preds comeback.

Stamkos added an empty-netter for his 29th tally on the campaign, and the Predators finished the night with another massive two points to conclude their first game in three weeks. 

“You [could] see, just coming to the game and talking in the room, guys were focused,” O’Reilly said. “Guys know what's at stake here, and we know how important it is… It wasn't pretty at times…but the intensity was there, the intention was there, and when you do that, you get on the right side of things and you find a way to win.”

“Obviously, we prefer not to [have to come back], but we’ve done that to ourselves enough and come back from it that we certainly build some belief,” Forsberg said. “This game, I think, was just kind of a matter of who was going to stay with it longer. In the third period, there was not really a lot of scoring chances either way. They played a pretty stingy defensive game, just like we did, but that's the ‘Factor’ [O'Reilly] effect - just one opportunity and it's game over.”

From here, the Preds will now head to Dallas for a single game against the Stars - and with just four games remaining until the Trade Deadline and 24 contests overall left in the regular season - the need for urgency will continue. 

“This group has been really tight,” Brunette said. “It’s been fun to be around them. They don't give up. Another example again tonight. They believe in themselves. They know they can come back. We don't want to be coming back all the time. I keep saying this is a broken record, but we know and we believe we can now. We’ve got another tough game going and a hard road game, so we're day-to-day here, but we're fighting.”

Notes:

Preds forward Zach L’Heureux made his season debut on Thursday night and logged three hits in 9:45 of ice time.

Per NHL PR, Filip Forsberg hit the 25-goal mark for the ninth time in his career and passed Markus Naslund as well as Daniel Alfredsson (both with eight) for the second most by a Swedish-born player in NHL history. Only Mats Sundin (15) has more.

Steven Stamkos scored his 611th career goal and passed Bobby Hull for sole possession of 19th place on the NHL’s all-time goals list. 

Stamkos extended his home goal streak to five games and matched the longest run in Predators history. The benchmark is shared with Filip Forsberg (5 GP in 2024-25, 2023-24 & 2016-17), Jonathan Marchessault (5 GP in 2024-25) and David Legwand (5 GP in 2010-11).

The Predators will now head to Dallas for a one-game trip to face the Stars on Saturday night before returning home to host the Red Wings for a special 1 p.m. CT start on Monday afternoon.