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’ shorthanded, 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 are 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