CHICAGO – Filip Forsberg got his 10th career hat trick and set a Nashville franchise record with 46 goals, and the Predators beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-1.
Kiefer Sherwood and Jason Zucker also scored for the playoff-bound Predators, who handed last-place Chicago its third straight loss, AP reported.
Luke Evangelista had two assists, and Kevin Lankinen finished with 25 saves against his former team, and also had an assist.
“It’s obviously awesome,” Forsberg said of setting the goal-scoring mark. “The franchise has had a lot of great players and just to be mentioned as one of them is obviously something that’s cool.
“And hopefully I’m not done yet.” Philipp Kurashev scored for Chicago, and Arvid Soderblom had 35 saves.
Elsewhere, Andrei Kuzmenko scored three goals, Nazem Kadri had a goal and two assists, and the Calgary Flames withstood Anaheim’s third-period rally for a 6-3 victory over the Ducks.
Kuzmenko got his second career hat trick with two goals in the final 5:38 after Anaheim had trimmed Calgary’s 4-0 lead to one goal. Andrew Mangiapane and Connor Zary also scored for the Flames, who won for only the third time in 12 games. Dustin Wolf made 19 saves.
“The first 40 minutes, we played a pretty exceptional game,” said Wolf, a California native who grew up partly in nearby Tustin.
“Then they scored a couple of nice goals, and I was just battling. Made a couple of saves when I needed to.”
Sam Colangelo scored a goal in his NHL debut for the Ducks early in the third period, and Frank Vatrano and Olen Zellweger scored shortly afterward.
But Kuzmenko deflected Jonathan Huberdeau’s shot to keep the Flames ahead with 5:38 to play on a power play, and he added another less than three minutes later.
Kuzmenko acknowledged he wasn’t sure whether he deserved the credit for his second goal, but he’ll take it. “A hat trick is a hat trick,” Kuzmenko said with a grin. “It’s more important we win.”
The game was the last at Honda Center for longtime Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg, who announced his impending retirement this week after a 12-year NHL career. Silfverberg said after the game that he will play “another couple of years” in his native Sweden.
John Gibson stopped 21 shots in the final home game of the sixth consecutive non-playoff season for the Ducks, who have lost 15 of 18.
Anaheim finished with just 12 home victories this season, fewer than every team except NHL-worst San Jose with 11.
Mangiapane tapped in his 14th goal to cap an impressive sequence of short-handed fore checking by Calgary in the first period.
Kadri doubled the lead six minutes later with his 27th goal, and Kuzmenko scored his 19th of the season from inside Gibson´s goal crease in the second period.
The Ducks trailed 4-0 before Colangelo easily tapped in his goal in the third period when a puck trickled underneath Wolf and sat in the crease.
The Ducks drafted Colangelo in the second round in 2020, and the 22-year-old forward from Massachusetts turned pro this month after his senior season at Western Michigan.
Lankinen got solid defensive support in this one.
“It’s unbelievable how we’re playing right now,” he said. “Just watching the guys grind and hound and suffocate other teams. It’s fun to be back there and we don’t give them much life.”
Forsberg opened the scoring with his team record-setting 44th goal, on the power-play 5:53 in. From the right circle, he fired a high shot just inside the left post with Evangelista screening Soderblom.
It moved him past the Predators´ previous mark of 43 goal in a season, set by Matt Duchene in 2021-22.
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