Michael McCarron had two goals and two assists as the visiting Nashville Predators matched the biggest margin of victory in their history by defeating the San Jose Sharks 8-0 on Saturday night.

The Predators, who entered the NHL in 1998, tied the franchise record for biggest margin of victory set in an 8-0 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 28, 2009.

Juuse Saros made 20 saves for his third shutout of the season and the 17th of his NHL career. Matt Luff had two goals and an assist, Matt Duchene scored two goals, and Roman Josi had four assists and finished plus-6 for Nashville, which leapfrogged the Dallas Stars to move into the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Yakov Trenin and Mikael Granlund also scored goals and Philip Tomasino contributed three assists.

The loss tied for the second-worst shutout in Sharks history, behind only a 9-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 26, 1991.

Alex Stalock made 22 saves for San Jose before giving way to Zach Sawchenko, who made six and allowed the final two goals. The 34-year-old Stalock, obtained in a trade from the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday, was making his first NHL start since Aug. 7, 2020, with the Minnesota Wild. He had been sidelined with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, as the result of a bout with COVID-19 in November 2020.

Nashville took a 1-0 lead at 10:43 of the first period when McCarron converted Tomasino's behind-the-net pass with a quick wrist shot from the right of the net. Duchene made it 2-0 at 18:30 when his wrist shot from just inside the blue line went through a Filip Forsberg screen and beat Stalock.

It became 3-0 at 2:43 of the second period when Josi's fluttering shot from the left point deflected off Luff in front of crease and went into the net.

San Jose had two good chances to get back into the game midway through the period, but Timo Meier's shot caromed off the crossbar and Saros made a pad save on a breakaway by Tomas Hertl. Luff made it 4-0 with 30 seconds left in the period when he tapped in the rebound of Tomasino's shot.

The Predators blew the game open with four goals in the third period. Duchene scored his 27th of the season at 4:43, and McCarron, Trenin and Granlund scored in a span of 6:59.

--Field Level Media