James Neal registered his fifth career hat trick and the Nashville Predators beat the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Thursday night.
Pekka Rinne turned away 30 shots for the Predators, who have picked up at least a point in each of their first seven games (5-0-2). It's the longest the team has gone without a regulation loss to open a season since starting the 2010-11 campaign with a 5-0-3 record.
Ben Smith and Andrew Shaw supplied the goals in Chicago's (4-1-1) first regulation loss of the season. Antti Raanta, making his second consecutive start in place of Corey Crawford (upper-body injury), stopped 24 shots.
Neal buried a rebound into an open net to complete the hat trick and give Nashville a 3-1 lead at 1:52 of the third period.
Shaw made a strong move to the net and knocked in his own rebound out of the air with 7:24 left, but he was robbed by the glove of Rinne with just over a minute remaining and Raanta pulled for an extra attacker.
Smith beat Rinne from the crease at 12:21 of the first period, and Chicago was poised to take the lead into the intermission. However, Neal beat Raanta on a wrist shot from the right circle with 48 seconds remaining.
Neal put the Predators ahead with 3:48 to play in the second period, scoring on a slap shot off a Brandon Saad turnover in the Chicago zone.
Game Notes
Filip Forsberg had two assists for Nashville ... The Blackhawks defeated the Predators 2-1 in overtime at Chicago last Saturday.
[SportsNetwork.com]
