Nashville Predators vs Vegas Golden Knights Match Player Stats On Jan 23, 2019

Juuse Saros had a career-high 47 saves as the Nashville Predators moved into a tie for first place in the Central Division with a 2-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

Nick Bonino and Ryan Johansen scored goals for Nashville, which picked up its 30th win of the season and goes into the All-Star break tied with Winnipeg, which has four games in hand, with 64 points.

Saros, who had a 43-save shutout against the Golden Knights last season in Nashville, improved to 3-0-0 in his career against Vegas.

Max Pacioretty scored the lone goal for the Golden Knights, who lost back-to-back regulation home games for the first time this season and limp into All-Star break and bye week having lost four of their last six games.

Vegas took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on Pacioretty's 15th goal of the season and third in three games, one-timing a crossing pass from Alex Tuch into the right side of the goal.

Nashville scored two goals in the first four minutes of the second period to take a 2-1 lead.

Johansen, playing his first game after serving a two-game suspension for high-sticking Winnipeg's Mark Scheifele in the head, chipped in a rebound for his ninth goal of the season less than a minute into the period. The chance started off a long clearing pass by Brayden McNabb that wound up leading to a shot out front by Roman Josi.

Bonino followed three minutes later with his sixth goal in seven games. Austin Watson set up the score with a pass from behind the goal that squirted between the right post and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury's leg and into the slot, where Bonino fired it into a wide-open net for his 14th goal of the season.

Vegas had a chance to tie it later in the period with a two-on-none break, but Saros stopped William Karlsson's point-blank try.

The Golden Knights, who finished 0-for-5 on the power play, pulled Fleury with 2:30 remaining and Saros stopped a pair of shots, including a close-in wrist shot by Jonathan Marchessault, to seal the victory.

--Field Level Media