NHL - San Jose Sharks @ Nashville Predators 2-6 - Saturday, February 06, 2016

Viktor Arvidsson had two goals and Filip Forsberg had three points to help the Nashville Predators to a 6-2 win against the San Jose Sharks at Bridgestone Arena. Nashville improved to 14-9-3 at home and ended a two-game losing streak.
James Neal gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 13:12 of the first period on a one-timer from the left faceoff circle. Center Ryan Johansen made a backhand pass from behind the net to Neal, who one-timed it past Sharks goaltender Martin Jones for his 19th goal. Calle Jarnkrok gave the Predators a 2-0 lead at 6:26 of the second period on a wrist shot from the slot. Johansen had the puck along the boards and fed it to a wide open Jarnkrok, who was able to beat Jones for his ninth goal.
Joe Thornton scored at 15:41 of the second period on the power play to make it 2-1. The puck bounced off of Predators defenseman Shea Weber beside the net, and Thornton was able to knock it into the net past goaltender Pekka Rinne for his 11th goal.
Arvidsson gave the Predators a 3-1 lead at 17:01 of the second period on a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle while falling down. He entered the zone and beat Jones under the crossbar for his fourth goal. Forsberg gave the Predators a 4-1 lead at 6:51 of the third period with a shorthanded goal. The puck was cleared by Weber, and Forsberg took a wrist shot that beat Jones on the far side for his 15th goal. Arvidsson gave the Predators a 5-1 lead at 8:44 of the third period. Forsberg passed to Arvidsson on the rush, who made a forehand-to-backhand move to beat Jones for his second goal of the game and fifth of the season.
Logan Couture scored to make it 5-2 at 13:37 of the third period on the power play. Couture one-timed a pass from Thornton past Rinne for his fourth goal.
 Weber added an empty net goal at 15:23 of the third period to make it 6-2.
Ribeiro became the 22nd active player to reach 1,000 career NHL games and the 300th player all time. He had two assists.
San Jose will play at the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday; Nashville will host the Washington Capitals Tuesday.

Sharks Bites

Marc-Edouard Vlasic: "[Three of the Predators goals] Empty net and two off the glass that hit the stanchions. This glass is terrible. Really bad. It's closer than it looked tonight, that's for sure."
"You can hit it hard or soft. If it hits the right part of the glass, it's just going to die, and that's what happened. It'll hit it again, and it'll get out of the zone. It's just unfortunate."

Logan Couture: "At the end of the game, I looked up and obviously saw it was 6-2, and it didn't feel like a 6-2 game. Their short-handed goal goes off a stanchion, and they got a 3 on 1 going the other way. They got some of those breaks."
Joe Pavelski: "We had a good feeling in the room. It's just, it went the other way in a hurry. You have nights like that."
Pete DeBoer: "In a long season, you're going to have some breaks like that. At the same time, let's not take anything away from (Nashville). I don't think it was simply breaks. They figured out a way to score some goals, and we've got to be harder around the net and stick some more in 5 on 5. We've got to get in the goalie's eyes a little more so he doesn't see the puck. You knew Rinne was on the first five minutes of the game."

San Jose Mercury View

The Sharks didn't do anything to tarnish Pekka Rinne's reputation as one of the stingiest goalies in the NHL. The reputation of the stanchions inside Bridgestone Arena, though, took an absolute beating inside the visitor's dressing room after the Sharks lost 6-2 to the Nashville Predators. The Sharks fired 30 shots at Rinne and created a host of scoring chances in the first two periods. But the Sharks also ran into a couple of bad breaks that led to a pair of Predators goals, turning what seemed like a close game into their most lopsided loss in over two months. With San Jose trailing 1-0, a clearing attempt from Vlasic up ice bounced off a stanchion right to Ryan Johansen. All three Sharks forwards had left the zone at that point. So Johansen fed an open Calle Jarnkrok in the slot, and his wrist shot went off Martin Jones' glove and into the net for a two-goal Predators lead 6:26 into the second period. In the third period with the Sharks on the power play, Shea Weber's shot up ice went off the glass and bounced sideways right to Filip Forsberg, who streaked in on a 3 on 1 and beat Jones with a low wrist shot to put Nashville up 4-1. Viktor Arvidsson scored less than two minutes later, and after Logan Couture scored to cut Nashville's lead to three with 6:27 to go, Weber added an empty-netter as the Sharks were handed their first four-goal loss since Dec. 1 when they were beaten by Pittsburgh 5-1 at SAP Center. The Sharks went 2 for 5 on the power play but couldn't solve Rinne at even strength despite 23 shots. They officially hit one post, when a backhand shot by Joe Pavelski drew iron with 15:45 to go in the second period. Jones finished with 24 saves, and Joe Thornton scored the other goal for the Sharks, who dropped to 1-2 on their four-game trip. They finish the trip Tuesday in Chicago. The Sharks outshot Nashville 9-2 through the first 8:22 of the first period, but the Predators opened the scoring on their fourth shot on goal. Johansen controlled the puck behind the Sharks net and fed a backhand pass to a streaking James Neal, who beat Jones with a one-timer with 6:48 left in the first. Perhaps the Sharks' best scoring opportunity in the first came on a 2 on 1 with Joel Ward and Vlasic. Ward's pass to Vlasic was a tad off target, and by the time Vlasic got the shot off, Rinne was in position to make the save as the puck went off his helmet and out of play. Rinne improved to 10-5-4 all-time against the Sharks.