Brunette hopes fiery win vs. Wild will serve as 'defining moment' for Preds
The Predators' 6-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night was a fiery affair with three fights in the game's opening seven minutes, and Nashville head coach Andrew Brunette hopes it's a performance his team can build off of.
"You're extremely proud of them (for) coming together," Brunette said postgame, per NHL.com's Brooks Bratten. "To me, hopefully this is a little bit of a defining moment that kind of kick-starts us here. We've been playing better the last six weeks, and something like that actually makes your group even tighter."
First up, Predators rookie Zachary L'Heureux dropped the gloves with Wild forward Yakov Trenin, which was immediately followed by a bout between Luke Schenn and Marcus Foligno in the first two minutes. Mark Jankowski and Ryan Hartman got into a scrap soon after, and the former was ruled out for the remainder of the matchup with an upper-body injury.
It should come as no surprise that the contest was an emotional one. L'Heureux was suspended three games for slew-footing Wild captain Jared Spurgeon during the Central Division rivals' last meeting on New Year's Eve.
Foligno said that he was sure L'Heureux would "have to answer to someone" for the play that injured Spurgeon. Predators forward Michael McCarron responded to Foligno before Saturday's game, saying "They can say everything they want, we have guys in here that'll protect our team."
The Wild opened the scoring between the bouts, but the Predators erupted to a 4-1 lead before the end of the second frame, ultimately putting the game out of reach.
Filip Forsberg was key to Nashville's effort with a pair of goals and two assists.
"Fil just decided nobody was going to take the puck off him tonight," Brunette said. "And when he does that, and he gets on these kinds of rolls ... it's fun to watch, and I'm sure for the crowd and for his teammates.
"It was really good. He kind of grabbed everybody on his back. ... It's his way of sticking up for his teammate."
Nashville has now won three in a row and five of its last seven games.
It's going to be difficult for the Preds to overcome their abysmal first half of the season, which featured an eight-game losing streak. They're still 12 points back from the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference with a 16-22-7 record.
Next up for Nashville is a tilt with the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.