Hawks take front end of home & home from Preds 4-1

NASHVILLE—Cristobal Huet made 25 saves, and Dustin Byfuglien, Patrick Kane, Andrew Ladd and Patrick Sharp scored in the Blackhawks’ 4-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night.Jonathan Towes and Tomas Kopecky each had two assists for the Western Conference-leading Hwks. Martin Erat scored for Nashville.The Predators were hit with back-to-back minor penalties in the first period. After killing off the first penalty, the Predators were unable to stop the Blackhawks on the second. Byfuglien scored with a wrist shot through traffic from just inside the blue line at the 9:44 mark against Pekka Rinne.Erat tied it at 7:38 of the second, beating Huet on a breakaway.The Blackhawks scored two goals in a 1:10 span of the second period to take a 3-1 lead. Kane scored first, beating Rinne to his right side with a wrister from the left point. Ladd scored on a backhander at 13:36.With 1:13 left in the second, Sharp gave the Blackhawks a 4-1 edge off a rebound.

NOTES—

Byfuglien has three goals in five games against Nashville. … Huet has started all five games against Nashville this season, going 3-2.