Juuso Parssinen scored twice and had an assist, and Roman Jose had four assists in the Nashville Predators’ 5-4 win against the New York Islanders at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Thursday.
Parssinen, a 21-year-old forward, has four points (three goals, one assist) in three NHL games since being recalled from Milwaukee of the American Hockey League on Nov. 12.
“I [have] a lot of confidence right now,” Parssinen said. “I get to play a lot. I play with really good teammates, good [linemates]so of course I have confidence now.”
Video: NYI@NSH: Parssinen tips home his second on power play
Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist for the Predators (8-8-1), who have won three in a row. Jesus Saros made 29 saves.
“He’s making life easy for both me and [Mikael Grandlund],” Forsberg said of Parssinen. “He skates really well. He’s strong on the puck.”
Adam Pelech and Jean-Gabriel Pageau each had a goal and an assist for the Islanders (11-7-0), who won their previous two games. Ilya Sorokin made 26 saves.
“The starts aren’t good enough,” New York captain Anders Lee said. “Tonight was indicative of that.”
Video: NYI@NSH: Forsberg gives Preds early 1-0 lead in 1st
Nashville scored three goals in the first 9:41 of the game. Forsberg, stationed by the far post, made it 1-0 at 1:03 of the first period when he jammed a rebound of Josi’s shot past Sorokin.
Pelech tied it 1-1 at 2:42, but Colton Sissons (8:43) and Nino Niederreiter (9:41) scored on deflections to give the Predators a 3-1 lead.
Parssinen made it 4-1 at 5:01 of the second period when he snapped a shot from the slot over Sorokin.
“He’s a power-first player,” Nashville coach John Hynes said of Parssinen. “I thought there were some times in the Minnesota game (on Tuesday) where he was playing a little bit more of a finesse game. I thought tonight he was back to being [powerful] and strong on the puck and being an offensive threat. … I thought it was a nice step in the right direction for him again tonight.”
Video: NYI@NSH: Sissons scores in 1st period
Cal Clutterbuck cut it to 4-2 when he redirected Pelech’s shot from the point at 15:41, and Kyle Palmieri made it 4-3 at 4:32 of the third period on a wrist shot from between the circles after Pageau fed him from behind the net.
But Parssinen redirected Granlund’s shot from the right circle for a power-play goal at 9:52 to give Nashville a 5-3 lead.
“Sometimes that hole, you can’t afford any other mistakes,” Lee said. “When they were able to get that extra [goal] a couple of times, it [made] it a little bit further than we had to work back to.”
Pageau slammed a no-look feed from Lee past Saros for a power-play goal with 4:21 left for the 5-4 final.
“I thought we answered back pretty well,” the New York defenseman Noah Dobson said. “We didn’t have the jump early on, but I thought we did a good job finding it to try and get back in the game. We did a good job of that, but we have to have a little better jump from the start. “
Video: NYI@NSH: Niederreiter scores in 1st period
The Islanders outshot the Predators 16-3 in the third.
”The key is finding ways to win, and we made enough plays tonight to give ourselves a chance to win,” Hynes said. ”I think that’s good on the guys for finding a way.”
NOTES: It was Hynes’ 100th win as Predators coach. … Nashville defenseman Ryan McDonagh played his 800th NHL game. He had an assist and was plus-3 in 23:17 of ice time. … Each team went 1-for-3 on the power play. … Islanders center Mathew Barzal had an assist, his eighth in the past six games. He has no goals and 19 assists in 18 games this season.
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