Nashville Predators vs Buffalo Sabres Box Score on Mar 21, 2023

Luke Evangelista had two goals and two assists and Matt Duchene added two goals and one assist to power the Nashville Predators to a 7-3 victory over the host Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.

Philip Tomasino, Ryan McDonagh and Tommy Novak each had a goal and an assist for the Predators (35-26-8, 78 points), who ended their three-game losing streak that included a setback in overtime. Juuse Saros made 28 saves for the Predators.

Dylan Cozens, Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner scored for the Sabres (33-31-6, 72 points), who have dropped four straight and 10 of their past 12 games (2-8-2), getting outscored 59-31 in that time.

Trailing 2-0 after the first period, the Sabres halved the deficit at the 3:36 mark of the second period.

JJ Peterka carried the puck the length of the ice only to be stopped by Saros, who failed to make a clean save, enabling Cozens to put home the rebound from close range.

Nashville countered 24 seconds later. After getting a pass from Evangelista along the wing, Tyson Barrie slid a pass to a streaking Novak, whose breakaway goal extended the advantage to 3-1.

The Predators took a 4-1 lead when Evangelista wristed Novak's pass by Craig Anderson at the 9:21 mark. Saros, whose outlet pass to Novak started the rush, was also credited with an assist -- the fifth of his career and his first since the 2017-18 season.

Evangelista made it 5-1 when he scored off an assist from Kiefer Sherwood just 40 seconds later, and McDonagh capped Nashville's four-goal period with a tally off a feed from Evangelista with 4:08 left.

Thompson's power-play goal off assists from Rasmus Dahlin and Victor Olofsson cut the lead to 6-2 with 2:43 left in the period.

Skinner scored off an assist from Alex Tuch to make it 6-3 at the 7:45 mark of the third period.

Duchene capped the scoring with an empty-net goal off McDonagh's assist with 2:23 left.

Nashville took a 1-0 lead when Duchene delivered a cross-ice pass to Tomasino, who drove a one-timer by Anderson at the 11:45 mark of the first period.

The Predators doubled their lead with 1:17 left in the period. After taking a pass on the left wing from Jeremy Lauzon, Tomasino slid a cross-ice pass to Duchene, who blasted a shot past Anderson.

--Field Level Media