Carolina Hurricanes vs Nashville Predators Match Player Stats On Mar 09, 2019

Nino Niederreiter bounced back from an ugly performance by scoring two goals, leading the Carolina Hurricanes to a 5-3 victory Saturday night against the host Nashville Predators.

Justin Williams, Jordan Martinook and Sebastian Aho also scored for Carolina, and goaltender Petr Mrazek made 31 saves to improve to 6-1-0 in his past seven starts.

Craig Smith, Brian Boyle and Mikael Granlund scored for Nashville, which missed an opportunity to move past idle Winnipeg into first place in the Central Division. Predators goalie Juuse Saros stopped 27 of 31 shots.

Niederreiter set a franchise mark with a plus-minus rating of minus-6 in an 8-1 loss at home to Winnipeg one night earlier.

Niederreiter opened the scoring Saturday with an unassisted goal at 14:29 of the first period. He stole the puck at center ice, skated over the blue line and beat Saros high to the glove side with a wrist shot from the left circle.

Exactly five minutes later, Niederreiter scored a power-play goal with 31 seconds remaining in the period to make it 2-0. Niederreiter set up at the top of the crease and tipped a shot from the point by Teuvo Teravainen into the net.

It was 20th goal of the season for Niederreiter, who was acquired by Carolina in a trade with Minnesota on Jan. 17.

Smith got the Predators on the board at 2:52 of the second. Smith took a pass from Roman Josi at center ice, skated down the right wing and fired a slap shot from the top of the right circle that went over Mrazek's blocker and into the top left corner of the net.

Williams gave the Hurricanes a 3-1 lead just 55 seconds into the third with a power-play goal, redirecting a Teravainen shot into the net.

Boyle pulled the Predators within 3-2 at 2:35, chipping the rebound of a shot by Kyle Turris over Mrazek.

Martinook restored the Hurricanes' two-goal advantage at 6:38 of the period, putting a rebound of a shot by Brett Pesce past Saros.

Granlund pulled the Predators within 4-3 at 17:32 off a scramble in front.

Aho capped the scoring on an empty-netter with 20 seconds remaining.

--Field Level Media