Roman Josi scored 40 seconds into overtime and the Nashville Predators rallied from a three-goal third-period deficit to extend their franchise-record point streak to 18 games with a 5-4 victory over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night.
Josi took the puck from Filip Forsberg in the right circle and then cut in front of the net and tucked a shot around the right pad of Vegas goaltender Jiri Patera for the game-winner and his 19th tally of the season.
Forsberg scored his 40th goal to extend his goal streak to six games and also had two assists. Ryan O’Reilly had a goal and two assists and Mark Jankowski and Gustav Nyquist each added a goal and an assist for Nashville (43-25-4, 90 points), which improved to 16-0-2 since getting blown out by visiting Dallas 9-2 on Feb. 15. It’s the longest point streak in the NHL this season.
Juuse Saros finished with 31 saves.
William Karlsson had a goal and an assist, Anthony Mantha had two assists and Ivan Barbashev, Brett Howden and Shea Theodore also scored goals for Vegas (39-25-8, 86 points), which had a three-game winning streak snapped.
Patera, recalled from Henderson of the American Hockey League due to an injury to Adin Hill, made 30 saves.
Nashville trailed 4-1 entering the third period when O’Reilly started the comeback at the 5:52 mark with his 25th goal, putting in a rebound from the slot of Nyquist’s shot.
The Predators then tied it 4-4 with two goals in a 40-second span midway through the period. Forsberg got the first when he jammed in a rebound of Jason Zucker’s shot. The Golden Knights unsuccessfully challenged that Zucker was offsides on the play and Nyquist then tied it on the ensuing power-play. His wrist shot from the left circle went past Patera’s blocker side for his 20th goal, setting the stage for Josi’s overtime game-winner.
Vegas, playing the second game of a back-to-back that began with a 2-1 overtime victory at St. Louis on Monday, took a 2-0 lead in the first 5:08.
Barbashev made it 1-0 at the 2:45 mark with a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle off a crossing pass from Jack Eichel. It was his 16th goal of the season and the 100th of his career.
Howden followed with his seventh goal, roofing a shot from the slot.
Theodore extended the lead to 3-0 at the 16:43 mark of the period. He ripped a wrist shot from the high slot through traffic and past Saros’ glove side — his first goal in 19 games.
Jankowski cut it to 3-1 in the second period with his fifth goal. But Vegas regained its three-goal lead with 57 seconds left in the period when Karlsson, cutting down the slot, tapped in a backhand crossing pass from Noah Hanifin to finish an odd-man rush.
–Field Level Media
