Juuse Saros made 16 of his 32 saves in the third period for his second shutout of the season and the visiting Nashville Predators ran their winning streak to a season-high five games with a 1-0 victory over the New York Rangers on Sunday night.

The Predators completed a three-game sweep in the New York area getting one-goal wins over the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils thanks to Saros and a defense that blocked 14 shots in front of him.

Saros recorded his 16th career shutout and joined Tomas Vokoun (2006) as the second Predators’ goalie to blank the Rangers in team history.

Rookie Philip Tomasino scored against the Rangers for the second time this year as Nashville improved to 16-6-1 in its past 23 games on a night when leading scorer Matt Duchene missed a second straight game with an upper-body injury and Ryan Johansen was placed in the COVID-19 protocol shortly before the opening faceoff.

The Rangers were blanked for the second time and lost for only the third time in 15 games.

New York goalie Alexandar Georgiev made 23 saves and only faced 11 shots in the final 40 minutes.

The Predators took a 1-0 lead 1:44 into the second when Filip Forsberg whipped a cross-ice pass from the left corner to Tomasino. As New York’s Chris Kreider struggled to get back to defend in the slot, Tomasino lifted a wrist shot from between the circles over Georgiev’s left shoulder.

After Luke Kunin’s backhander was stopped with three minutes left in the second period, the Rangers were unable to score when Saros poked away a backhander by Zibanejad with 2:43 left and stopped Jacob Trouba on an odd-man rush a little over a minute later.

Saros then came out of the crease to make a diving pad save on Ryan Strome during a New York power play with 12:43 remaining. About 20 seconds later, he made a point-blank glove stop on Strome before ending the power-play with a stop on Panarin.

Before Tomasino scored the game’s only goal, the Rangers nearly took the lead with 4:43 remaining in the first when Mika Zibanejad’s redirection attempt deflected off Kreider and over the crease without going into the net.

–Field Level Media