New York Islanders vs Nashville Predators Match Player Stats On Feb 13, 2020

Craig Smith scored his first career hat trick and the Nashville Predators routed the visiting New York Islanders 5-0 on Thursday night.

Predators goalie Juuse Saros made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and ninth of his career.

Rocco Grimaldi had a goal and an assist, and Mattias Ekholm also scored for the Predators, who were 1-5-0 in their past six home games.

Smith has five goals in his past three games and 16 on the season.

New York goalie Thomas Greiss was pulled at 13:33 of the first period after allowing three goals on eight shots. Semyon Varlamov came on and made 16 saves.

The Islanders had won two straight and five-of-seven (5-1-1).

Smith made it 1-0 just 35 seconds into the game when he stole the puck from New York's Nick Leddy in the Islanders' zone and beat Greiss from a tough angle along the goal line.

The score was 2-0 after Grimaldi won a battle for the puck behind Greiss and fed out to Smith, who scored on a high wrister from the slot at 7:41.

Nashville went ahead 3-0 when Ekholm finished off a 3-on-2 rush with a shot from the left circle. That was all for Greiss, who allowed eight goals on 23 shots in two appearances this season against Nashville.

Grimaldi made it 4-0 when he stole a pass at center ice, carried it in and scored on a wrist shot from the right circle.

Smith completed the hat trick and ended the scoring when he converted a pass in the slot from Roman Josi at 11:38 of the second period.

--Field Level Media