Rangers fall behind early, can't recover in 4-1 loss to Predators
NEW YORK (AP) — Cole Smith scored twice in the first period, and the Nashville Predators beat the New York Rangers 4-1 on Thursday night.
Ryan O’Reilly and Filip Forsberg also scored for Nashville, and Juuse Saros, starting for fifth time in five games this season, finished with 23 saves.
Adam Fox scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin, starting for the fourth time in four games, was pulled in the second period after giving up four goals on 18 shots. Jonathan Quick, signed to be the backup in the offseason, stopped all nine shots he faced in his season debut.
With the Rangers trailing 4-1 after two periods, Artemi Panarin fired a shot from the right side that beat Saros but hit the crossbar 4 1/2 minutes into the third.
Vincent Trocheck appeared to pull New York within two with about eight minutes remaining, but the goal was overturned after Nashville challenged for offside on the play.
Just 7 seconds into Nashville’s second power play of the night, O’Reilly got a pass from Luke Evangelista and beat Shesterkin from the right side to push the lead to 3-0 at 3:32 of the second period. It was O’Reilly’s second of the season and the Predators’ third in 19 chances with the man advantage.
Shesterkin stopped a breakaway try by Juuso Parssinen 2 1/2 minutes later to preserve the three-goal deficit.
Forsberg made it 4-0 on the Predators’ next power play as he fired a shot from the right circle past Shesterkin into the top left corner with 6:09 left in the middle period. That ended Shesterkin’s night.
The Rangers had two-man advantage late in the second as O’Reilly was called for tripping with Parssinen in the box. Fox took advantage as his pass through the crease from the left side deflected off the right leg of sprawled Nashville defenseman Ryan McDonagh with 42 seconds left. It gave the Rangers a power-play goal in each of their four games this season.
The Predators got on the scoreboard with 8:36 remaining in the opening period. Tyson Barrie fired a shot from right point that Michael McCarron deflected in front over Shesterkin’s pad, and Smith reached and poked in the loose puck before falling over the goalie and into the net for his first of the season.
Smith then got his second of the night as he came out of the penalty box after serving 2 minutes for interference, picked up an errant pass from the Rangers’ K’Andre Miller, skated in on a breakaway and fired it past Shesterkin.
SCORING TWICE
After coming in with four goals in 82 NHL games, Smith had his first multigoal effort.
STATS
Fox’s goal was his first of the season and extended his season-opening point streak to four games. ... Artemi Panarin had an assist on the play, extending his point streak to four games. Zibanejad also had an assist on the goal, his fifth.
UP NEXT
Predators: Host San Jose on Saturday night to open a three-game homestand.
Rangers: At Seattle on Saturday night to open a five-game West Coast trip.
