Predators 3, Islanders 1
Pekka Rinne turned aside 36 shots as the Nashville Predators scored three times in the first period and cruised to a 3-1 road triumph over the New York Islanders on Monday afternoon.
Sergei Kostitsyn and David Legwand collected their third goals in as many games and Matt Halischuk also tallied as Nashville matched its season high with five straight victories. The Predators have won 14 of their last 18 overall and seven of eight (7-0-1) against the Islanders.
Making his 12th start in a row, Rinne was sensational in a 19-save second period. The Finn fell just shy of recording his fourth shutout of the season and 24th of his career after All-Star John Tavares' deflection found the net with 3:58 remaining.
The Predators wasted little time getting to Kevin Poulin, who was making his second appearance of the campaign after veteran Evgeni Nabokov had started the Islanders' previous 11 games.
After Kostitsyn opened the scoring 2:17 in the contest, Halischuk doubled the advantage just over three minutes later by snapping a shot and beating Poulin high to the stick side.
Legwand capped a pretty tic-tac-toe play from Colin Wilson and Martin Erat to net his team-leading 13th goal of the season midway through the first period. Nashville's third goal came on its sixth shot of the game.