Nick Blankenburg scored the eventual game-winner as the Nashville Predators erased a four-goal deficit to defeat the visiting San Jose Sharks 7-5 on Tuesday night.
Jonathan Marchessault scored and added three assists, and Tommy Novak and Filip Forsberg each tallied a goal and two assists for the Predators, who have won four straight.
Fedor Svechkov, Justin Barron and Roman Josi also scored for Nashville, which improved to 10-6-1 over the last 17.
Juuse Saros allowed four goals on eight shots before being replaced by Justus Annunen to start the second period. Annunen made 15 saves.
Mikael Granlund scored twice, and Macklin Celebrini, Luke Kunin and Jake Walman also scored for San Jose, which has lost four in a row and seven of eight.
Cody Ceci and William Eklund had two assists each. Alexandar Georgiev stopped 34 shots.
Celebrini opened the scoring 1:07 into the first period, beating Saros glove side on a partial break.
San Jose scored twice in 13 seconds to open a 3-0 cushion. Kunin doubled the Sharks’ lead, snapping a shot bar down on Saros at 11:42 of the first. Granlund one-timed Will Smith’s pass past Saros at 11:56.
Novak got the Predators on the board at 12:20, putting home the rebound off Luke Schenn’s point shot.
Walman restored the three-goal lead with 27.9 seconds remaining in the period, backhanding in Alexander Wennberg’s pass.
Grandlund made it 5-1 on a power play, tapping in Eklund’s pass at 4:28 of the second.
Nashville scored twice in 53 seconds to pull within two. Svechkov ripped a shot from the slot glove side past Georgiev on a power play at 12:40 of the middle frame. Nashville made it 5-3 as Barron put home Forsberg’s feed past Georgiev.
Marchessault tapped in Steven Stamkos’ cross-ice feed 28 seconds into the third period to pull Nashville to within one.
The Predators tied it 5-5 on a power play as Josi one-timed Forsberg’s pass short side past Georgiev.
Blankenburg gave Nashville its first lead of the game at 8:09 of the third, putting a shot under the blocker of Georgiev. Forsberg added an empty-netter at 18:38.
–Field Level Media
