NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Don't look now, but the Swedes are taking over Nashville.
Viktor Arvidsson and Calle Jarnkrok each had a goal and an assist to lead the Predators to a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.
Filip Forsberg and Mike Fisher also scored and Pekka Rinne made 31 saves for Nashville. Roman Josi added two assists.
Markus Granlund and Alexander Edler had the goals for Vancouver, which has lost four straight.
"We battled hard. We never gave up," Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said. "That's been this team all year long. We keep coming at teams and tonight we should have had that tying goal, but it didn't happen."
Granlund scored the first goal at 6:01 of the opening period.
Brandon Sutter won a faceoff against newly acquired Predators center Vernon Fiddler. Granlund picked up the puck, and his wrist shot deflected off the stick of Nashville defenseman Yannick Weber and beat Rinne to the far side. It was Vancouver's first shot on goal in the game.
Arvidsson tied it at 12:20 of the first.
Carrying the puck down the left side, Colin Wilson slipped a pass to Arvidsson at the left faceoff dot, where he beat Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom with a one-timer high to the glove side.
"It was a great play," Arvidsson said of Wilson's pass. "He really drew the defenders down low and I just hung out in a high position. He gave it right in the wheelhouse, so I just tried to shoot it as quick as I could."
Markstrom finished with 29 saves.
Arvidsson has nine points in his last nine games.
Jarnkrok made it 2-1 at 16:32 of the first. From the low slot, his initial shot was denied by Markstrom, but Jarnkrok was able to swat at the rebound with a backhand and slip it just underneath his countryman for his ninth goal of the season.
The Wilson-Jarnkrok-Arvidsson line impressed Predators coach Peter Laviolette.
"The Jarnkrok line was excellent," Laviolette said. "They were fast and furious all night. I thought all three of them played a terrific game."
Forsberg's power-play goal at 9:04 of the third made it 3-1, a slap shot from the left side. The goal was initially waved off, but video review showed the puck crossed the line under Markstrom's glove.
"It was a little tough to tell, but you could see it through the glove, and it was a good call for us for sure," Forsberg said.
Vancouver drew within one at 12:06 of the third when Edler beat Rinne with a wrist shot from the high slot high to Rinne's stick side on a power play.
The Canucks put pressure on Nashville down the stretch, but could not get the equalizer despite five third-period shots on goal from Loui Eriksson, including one from in close with 1:40 remaining.
"We had a couple of good looks off to the side," Vancouver coach Willie Desjardins said. "Loui played hard tonight. It certainly would have been nice to get one on that cross-ice pass, but we didn't get it."
Fisher scored an empty-net goal with 42.3 seconds remaining.
Canucks left wing Sven Baertschi left early in the first after being hit by Nashville's Cody McLeod in the Predators zone well away from the puck. No penalty was assessed on the play. The team announced that Baertschi sustained a concussion.
NOTES: Vancouver D Ben Hutton returned to the lineup after missing 11 games with a hand injury. ... The Canucks are 11-5-3 when scoring first. ... Fiddler played his first game in his second stint with Nashville after being acquired from New Jersey. He played 305 games for the Predators from 2002-09. ... It was Arvidsson's eighth multipoint game of the season.
UP NEXT
Canucks: At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.
Predators: At the New York Rangers on Thursday.
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