- Juuse Saros made 29 saves as the Predators beat the Hurricanes 4-1 and ended Pyotr Kochetkov’s 10-0 start
- Roman Josi and Ross Colton each had a goal and an assist, and Filip Forsberg stretched his multipoint streak to five games
- Read below for what Rod Brind’Amour and Jaccob Slavin said about the loss
Pyotr Kochetkov’s perfect season is over.
The Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 on Tuesday at Bridgestone Arena, handing Kochetkov his first loss of the year after 10 straight wins to open the season. Juuse Saros stopped 29 of 30 shots at the other end.
Kochetkov made 16 saves. That 10-game run was a Hurricanes franchise record, and it came after he matched Frederik Andersen at 8-0 earlier in the week. The NHL marked the milestone on Sunday night:
Nick Perbix opened the scoring at 12:32 of the first period with his first goal of the season, a wrist shot from the right circle off a cross-ice feed from Forsberg. Josi made it 2-0 at 3:29 of the second, burying a snap shot off another Forsberg pass.
Jackson Blake got Carolina on the board at 10:28 of the second by backhanding home a rebound, and that was as close as the Hurricanes came. Adam Edstrom tipped in a Josi shot at 5:40 of the third for a career-high sixth goal. Colton added an empty-netter at 19:20.
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour was asked about his team’s night and pointed at Saros.
“Their goalie played really well. He made a lot of big saves to keep the game going, so they didn’t have to open it up or anything. I thought we were trying to do too much.”
Defenseman Jaccob Slavin talked about how Carolina played without the puck.
“We weren’t managing the puck well. We were taking pucks back and trying to get too cute through the neutral zone and breaking out of our zone. We’re a pretty north-south team, and when we start trying to go east to west when it’s not there, it puts stress on us.”
The loss ended a four-game winning streak for Carolina, which had won 12 of its previous 14 and sits at 12-3-2. Kochetkov was on the other side of a blowout two nights earlier, when the Canes were scoring early and often:
Forsberg had two assists for his fifth straight multipoint game, tying Josi’s 2021-22 run for the longest in franchise history. He has 11 points in his past five games. New Predators forward Shane Wright, acquired from Seattle on Sunday for Matthew Wood, played 14:32 and finished plus-2 in his debut.
Nashville also honored Pekka Rinne before the game ahead of his Hockey Hall of Fame induction on Nov. 9. The Predators moved to 6-4-5 and have points in five of their past six.
