Roman Josi and Matt Duchene scored 28 seconds apart to give Nashville the lead early in the third period, but the Predators needed a shootout to claim a 4-3 victory over the visiting Arizona Coyotes on Monday night.
Arizona held a 2-1 lead after two periods, but Josi tied it on Nashville's fifth power-play goal in four games, and second of the night, at 1:03 of the third. His drive got by partially screened goalie Connor Ingram, a former Predators player.
Ingram finished with a career-high 42 saves.
At 1:31 of the period, Duchene glided unchecked in front of the net and buried Colton Sissons' pass for a 3-2 Predators advantage.
However, Nick Bjugstad leveled the contest for Arizona on his second goal of the night with 6:44 remaining. With the Coyotes' short-handed, the Predators coughed up the puck, Bjugstad picked it up and then raced through the zone to beat Juuse Saros (24 saves).
The game eventually went to a shootout, where Cody Glass scored the final goal in the seventh round for the Predators, who are in a 4-0-1 stretch. Arizona, meanwhile, dropped its fourth in a row (0-3-1) and is 5-7-1 in road contests.
Nashville recorded the first seven shots of the night and had three power-play chances within the first seven-plus minutes. The Predators finally capitalized on the third attempt, when Mikael Granlund put home a juicy rebound of Filip Forsberg's shot from the circle with 12:56 remaining in the first.
The Coyotes eventually tied it with 11:10 left in the second period. Lawson Crouse got the puck on the tape from Bjugstad, then raced in to beat Saros. Bjugstad gave Arizona the lead with 4:04 remaining in the middle frame when he worked hard to put in a rebound off the right skate of Saros.
Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun played for the first time since he suffered a severe ankle injury against Boston on March 12. Meanwhile, teammate Clayton Keller's 11-game road point streak came to an end Monday.
Duchene, Forsberg and Ryan Johansen also scored in the shootout for Nashville. Bjugstad, Keller and Nick Ritchie tallied for Arizona.
--Field Level Media
Arizona | Nashville | |
Nick Bjugstad 3 | Points | Mikael Granlund 2 |
Nick Bjugstad 2 | Goals | Mikael Granlund 1 |
Nick Bjugstad 1 | Assists | Mikael Granlund 1 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | Mikael Granlund 1 |
Nick Bjugstad 1 | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Connor Ingram .933 | Save Percentage | Juuse Saros .889 |
Connor Ingram 42 | Saves | Juuse Saros 24 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Arizona | 27 | 3 | 0-2 | 5-7 | 21 | 29 |
Nashville | 45 | 4 | 2-7 | 2-2 | 11 | 35 |