Tanner Jeannot and Eeli Tolvanen scored in a span of 1:23 late in the second period Tuesday to lift the Nashville Predators over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1.
Mattias Ekholm and Yakov Trenin also scored, and Roman Josi added three assists for the Predators, who have won five of their past six games.
Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros made 35 saves.
Jake Guentzel scored for the Penguins, who had won two straight.
Pittsburgh goaltender Casey DeSmith made 21 saves.
The Penguins got a scare less than five minutes into regulation when captain Sidney Crosby and Ekholm collided in a corner. As Crosby landed on the ice, Ekholm’s skate blade came into contact with Crosby’s left elbow area, but after a brief trip to the locker room, Crosby was back on the bench.
Ekholm polished off a slick passing sequence with all five skaters involved to give the Predators a 1-0 lead with 1.5 seconds left in the first. His one-timer off a feed from Filip Forsberg sailed past a lunging DeSmith.
Pittsburgh tied it off a faceoff play at 14:00 of the second. Crosby won the draw, to Saros’ right, over to Kris Letang at the near boards. Letang fed Guentzel in the far circle, and Guentzel snapped the puck far side.
The assist gave Crosby a 10-game point streak.
Nashville regained the lead, 2-1, at 15:40 of the second. Jeannot was in traffic in front of the net when he tipped in a blast from Josi from the center point.
Tolvanen pushed it to 3-1 at 17:03 of the second. When neither Letang nor defense partner Mike Matheson could corral a bouncing puck at the far blue line, Tolvanen got a breakaway. He drove down and snapped the puck over DeSmith’s glove.
Josi, who got his second assist of the game, stretched his point streak to seven games.
Saros preserved the two-goal edge when he made a blocker save on a short breakaway by Pittsburgh’s Kasperi Kapanen about midway through the third.
Trenin added an empty-netter with 1:50 left.
–Field Level Media