NEW YORK (AP) – The Nashville Predators trailed in the third period even though they seemed to have had the better chances. They stuck with it and pulled out another big win to keep rolling along.
Ryan Johansen scored the tying goal in the final minute of regulation, and Roman Josi scored the winner 3:42 into overtime to rally the Predators past the New York Islanders 5-4 on Monday night.
“The whole game we had a good mindset,” Josi said. “We had a lot of shots, got a lot pucks to the net. We had a lot of chances, but just couldn’t get a lot of goals. In the third we just stayed with it, (Pekka Rinne) made a couple of unbelievable saves.”
Kevin Fiala had two goals, and Calle Jarnkrok and Ryan Johansen also scored for Nashville, which won its third straight while scoring five goals in each and improved to 9-1-2 in its last 12 games. Rinne stopped 24 shots to help the Predators move into a tie with Winnipeg atop the Central Division, with Nashville holding the tiebreaker with two games in hand.
On the winner, Nick Bonino sent a pass back across the front to Josi, who fired it into the open net from the right side with Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak out of position.