Niederreiter, Granlund each score twice in Nashville Predators' victory against Sharks
On the day they learned they'd be without forward Ryan Johansen for approximately 12 weeks, the Nashville Predators defeated the San Jose Sharks 6-2 on Thursday in California.
Johansen, whose lower right leg was cut by a skate blade Tuesday night, had surgery Wednesday afternoon.
Forward Filip Forsberg missed his sixth consecutive game with an upper-body injury.
Nino Niederreiter’s power-play goal, which deflected in off a Sharks defender, put the Predators ahead 1-0 with 15 minutes, 36 seconds remaining in the first. It marked the third consecutive game he's scored.
Mikael Granlund increased the lead to two 1:28 into the second.
The Sharks cut it to 2-1 on Nico Sturm's shorthanded goal 8:37 into the second.
But Granlund struck again with 6:26 left in the period. Yakov Trenin pushed the lead to 4-1 with a shorthanded goal with 28.8 seconds left in the second. Martin Kaut made it 4-2 less than a minute into the third.
But Niederreiter's second goal of the game with 9:12 left in the third made it 5-2 Predators. Tommy Novak's power-pay goal gave Nashville a 6-2 lead.
Matt Duchene had three assists for the Predators.
Rookie Juuso Parssinen left the game with an apparent hand injury and did not return.
This was the first meeting between the teams since the Predators swept two games from the Sharks to open the season in Prague in the NHL Global Series.
The Predators are 28-22-6. The Sharks are 18-30-11.
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Live updates: Nashville Predators score vs. San Jose Sharks
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Niederreiter, Granlund each score 2 in Predators' win against Sharks
