Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne stopped 31 shots for a 3-0 shutout of the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night in Raleigh, N.C.

Rocco Grimaldi, Calle Jarnkrok and Austin Watson scored for the Predators, who caught the Hurricanes off guard early and used that leverage for a solid performance.

The Predators have a four-game points streak, as they rebounded from an overtime loss Wednesday to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Rinne, who hadn't played in Nashville's previous three games, notched his third shutout of the season. He has a team-high nine victories.

Carolina was blanked for the first time this season, with a 12-shot first period giving Rinne the most chances of any period in the game.

The Hurricanes have lost two games in a row. They fell into a 3-0 deficit in both of those, though Wednesday night's result was a 3-2 road setback to the New York Rangers.

This time, Carolina goalie Petr Mrazek made 25 saves.

The game was part of Nashville's first set of games on back-to-back days of the season. The Predators go to Florida to face the Panthers on Saturday night.

Grimaldi opened the scoring in the first period, chasing down the puck and beating Mrazek at 8:15. It was just his second goal of the season.

The Hurricanes had a stretch of nearly eight minutes without a shot.

Jarnkrok scored for the third time in five games, tallying at 17:55 of the first. His nine goals rank third on the team.

It was 3-0 after Watson tipped in a shot from Mattias Ekholm at 3:28 of the second period.

Nashville went 0-for-4 on power plays while the Hurricanes were 0-for-3. Carolina's failure to create many quality scoring chances disturbed the sellout crowd.

The Predators, who improved to 5-4-1 in road games, played pretty much risk-free across the latter half of the game, giving coach Peter Laviolette a victory in a building where he once directed a Stanley Cup championship.

Nashville was credited with eight shots on goal in the third period after recording seven shots in the second period.

--Field Level Media