RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Luke Evangelista scored twice, Juuse Saros stopped 34 shots in his 200th career win, and the Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Michael Bunting also scored for the Predators, who won for just the second time in seven games.
Taylor Hall scored for the Hurricanes, who lost their second straight after an eight-game win streak. Pyotr Kochetkov had 13 saves.
Bunting gave the Predators a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 5:14 into the game, knocking in a loose puck after Kochetkov stopped Kieffer Bellows' shot from the right point with the puck getting behind the goalie.
Evangelista doubled the lead at 4:01 of the second as he got a long pass from Filip Forsberg, drew Kochetkov out of his net with a pump fake, and then skated to the right and put the puck in the open net.
Hall got the Hurricanes on the scoreboard 2:01 later on a power play as he put a backhander past Saros. Jarvis got his 200th point on the play. It was the fourth straight Carolina goal scored by Hall after he scored the last three in a 5-2 win at Anaheim on Sunday.
Evangelista got his second of the night and ninth of the season with 7:12 to go in the third for a two-goal lead.
Takeaways
Predators: Nashville improved to 2-4-1 in their last seven and avoided elimination from the playoff race.
Hurricanes: Despite the loss, Carolina has a firm grip on second place in the Metropolitan Division, beginning the day 12 points behind first-place Washington and nine up on third-place New Jersey.
Key moment
Evangelista tipped a shot by Marc Del Galzo past Kochetkov in the third period to push the Predators' lead to 3-1.
Key stat
Saros got to 200 wins in his 402nd career game, becoming the fifth-fastest Finnish goalie to reach the mark. He trails only Antti Niemi (353), Pekka Rinne (371), Miikka Kiprusoff (374) and Tuukka Rask (385).
Up next
Predators host St. Louis on Thursday, and Hurricanes host Montreal on Friday.
___
AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
The Associated Press