RALEIGH, N.C. — Pekka Rinne made 31 saves for his third shutout of the season and the 58th of his career as the Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0 on Friday night.
Rocco Grimaldi, Calle Jarnkrok and Austin Watson scored for the Predators, who broke a six-game losing streak against the Hurricanes.
The Predators won for the third time in four games, but notched their first win over Carolina since Jan. 2016.
The Hurricanes dropped their second straight. Carolina has just three losses in its last nine games.
Rinne won the 350th game of his career and the first since Nov. 4. He had lost his previous four starts and had been pulled in three of those losses. He was sharp in the first period, and needed to be. He made 12 saves to keep Carolina off the scoreboard.
Grimaldi gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 8:15 with a breakaway goal on Carolina’s Petr Mrazek (25 saves). It was Mrazek’s first career loss to Nashville in nine starts.
Jarnkrok made it 2-0 with 2:05 left in the first on a nice pass from Filip Forsberg. Rinne made a glove save on Ryan Dzingel with 22.4 seconds left in the period, and the stop might have been his best of the game.
Nashville extended its lead to 3-0 when Watson deflected in a long shot from the point by Mattias Ekholm.
Rinne made 10 saves in the third period.
NOTES
Carolina winger Andrei Svechnikov had his nine-game points streak snapped. … Nashville centre Kyle Turris was a healthy scratch for the sixth straight game. … The Hurricanes lost for the first time this season in their black jerseys. They are 19-5-2 since the start of the 2018-19 season when they wear their alternate jerseys. … Forsberg has 10 points in the past 12 games for the Predators. … The Hurricanes went 0 for 3 on the power play.
UP NEXT
Predators: At the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
Hurricanes: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
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The Associated Press