McTavish scores twice, Ducks cool off Predators

ANAHEIM -- Mason McTavish scored two goals for the Anaheim Ducks in a 5-2 win against the Nashville Predators at Honda Center on Saturday.

McTavish has five goals in the past three games.

“It's nice to see them going in for him," Ducks forward Trevor Zegras said of McTavish. "We've been calling him ‘Iron Sights’ because he hits a lot of posts and crossbars.”

Zegras and Jansen Harkins each had a goal and an assist, and Brett Leason had two assists for the Ducks (20-23-6), who are 19-0-2 when scoring three goals this season.

John Gibson made nine saves before leaving after the first period with an upper-body injury. Lukas Dostal replaced him and made 32 saves for Anaheim, which ended a four-game losing streak with a 5-1 win against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.

“I checked in afterwards, and I saw (Gibson) had some stuff on him, so I don’t know what’s going on with him," Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. "I think he’s going to be fine though.”

Gustav Nyquist and Ryan O'Reilly scored, Filip Forsberg had two assists and Juuse Saros made 30 saves for the Predators (18-23-7), who had won a season-high five in a row.

"It was a good run there. We found ways to win," O'Reilly said. "Tonight kind of caught up to us."

Anaheim defenseman Pavel Mintyukov took a wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle that got under Saros before he inadvertently kicked the puck across the goal line to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 4:15 of the first period.

"From the first shift we were just playing forward and simple, kind of our game," Harkins said. "Just using our speed and being hard on the puck. Getting pucks back on the forecheck."

Nyquist scored with a backhand to finish a breakaway and tie it 1-1 at 14:50.

The Ducks moved back ahead 2-1 with five seconds left in the first period after Zegras intercepted a pass from Roman Josi in the Nashville zone, who then passed to Alex Killorn in the right circle. Killorn fed McTavish as he cut to the net for the redirection from in close.

"I don't think we managed the puck very well," Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. "We've done a really good job of late managing it and, tonight, too many turnovers, left pucks in bad areas, kind of got away from our identity a little bit."

O'Reilly scored a rebound to tie it 2-2 at 5:07 of the second.

"I thought we did a really good job coming back when they tied it and the game could’ve gone either way at that point, but we responded well," Cronin said. "That, to me, is the reflection of a team that kind of believes in themselves."

Harkins sent a rebound past Saros to put the Ducks back in front 3-2 at 10:46, and Zegras scored off another rebound to extend the lead to 4-2 at 11:48.

"We gave up two goals in a minute," Brunette said. "All of those things that really equate to losing hockey, we kind of did tonight."

McTavish capped the scoring in the second period with a one-timer from the right circle while on a power play to make it 5-2 at 14:20.

"We got away from our identity," O'Reilly said. "We talk about being harder to play against and we didn’t manage the puck very well. We were trying to find the east-west plays. When we did put it behind them and take care of the puck, that’s where we generated our offense from. It’s tough. We've got to reset and get back to us. For myself, too, more leaders on the team got to lead the way. Especially grab a hold of when it’s a game like that and simplify and get back to what we do. We’ll fix it and get back to it."

NOTES: Forsberg's franchise-best goal streak ended at seven games. ... Forsberg has 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) in 25 career games against Anaheim. ... Nashville forward Jonathan Marchessault's point streak ended at an NHL career-high 10 games. ... O’Reilly is one point from 800 in his NHL career. ... Ducks forward Troy Terry assisted on McTavish’s second goal to extend his home point streak to seven games (two goals, 10 assists).