DCHL Portal

Predators Overpowered by Wild in 4–1 Road loss

11/5/2025 • Neil Burkholder

St. Paul, MN — A slow start and too many penalties cost the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night as they fell 4–1 to the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center.

Minnesota capitalized early, striking twice within a minute in the first period. Mikko Rantanen opened the scoring on the power play at 4:33, wiring a wrist shot past Tristan Jarry after a feed from Sebastian Aho. Less than a minute later, Jake McCabe doubled the lead off a point shot through traffic, giving the Wild all the momentum they needed.

“We were chasing the game from the start,” said Predators Head Coach Lane Lambert. “You can’t spot a good team a couple of goals in their building and expect to play catch-up all night.”

Nashville briefly clawed back into the contest in the second period when rookie Maxim Tsyplakov buried a feed from Samuel Helenius and Ty Dellandrea to cut the deficit in half. But the Wild answered just four minutes later on Rickard Rakell’s tally, restoring their two-goal cushion and quieting any comeback hopes.

Tempers flared midway through the period when Lawson Crouse dropped the gloves with defenseman Thomas Harley, energizing the bench but failing to turn the tide. The Predators’ power play went 0-for-4 and could not capitalize on several chances in the final frame.

Minnesota sealed the win when Brandon Tanev redirected a John Marino pass midway through the third to make it 4–1. Tristan Jarry stopped 31 of 35 shots in the loss, while Logan Thompson turned aside 21 of 22 for the Wild.

“We have to be harder on pucks,” said Captain Jacob Trouba, who logged over 22 minutes. “Our structure was there, but our execution wasn’t. That’s on us.”

With the loss, the Predators fall to 4–11–0, having scored just one goal over their last three games. They’ll return home to face Philadelphia in what’s shaping up to be an important bounce-back opportunity at Bridgestone Arena.