Michael Bunting tied it, Fedor Svechkov ended it.
Steven Stamkos tallied twice on the power play as well, and the Nashville Predators won a wild one and defeated the New York Islanders by a 7-6 final - in overtime - on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result snaps the Preds’ skid at six games and gives them a victory to conclude the Eastern Conference portion of their 2024-25 schedule.
Ryan O’Reilly, Filip Forsberg, Stamkos, Michael McCarron, Bunting and Svechkov all found the back of the net, including the overtime winner from the rookie forward, and despite being down 6-4 with less than four minutes to play in regulation, the Predators refused to give up - and they found a way to prevail.
“I mean, it [was an] unbelievable game,” Svechkov said. “I think this game's not for goalies. For the fans and for a team… really nice, a lot of goals, and it was up and down the whole game. So it's really nice that we grabbed the win tonight and get out.”
“It doesn't really make sense,” Stamkos said of the entire outcome. “Kind of just a crazy night, one of those throwback games with a lot of goals. Obviously, a long time coming for us. You know, we kind of talked about it this morning. I think [Preds Assistant Coach Todd Richards] made a joke about the hockey Gods not really rewarding us for goals. Well, we got some tonight, so it was great to see.”
New York struck first when Simon Holmstrom beat Preds goaltender Justus Annunen, but O’Reilly countered just moments later as he put home a rebound for his 300th career goal.
Forsberg gave the Preds their first lead of the night when he sniped a shot past Isles goaltender Ilya Sorokin from the left circle, but Anders Lee evened the score before the opening 20 minutes were out.
In the middle frame, the two clubs traded goals again with Holmstrom’s second of the night putting the Islanders back on top, but a Stamkos one-timer on the power play tied things at three. After Maxim Tsyplakov gave the visitors their fourth of the evening, McCarron answered for Nashville once more when he drove to the net to tie things at four headed into the third period.
Unlike the first two stanzas, neither team found the back of the net for most of the time - until the Islanders took a 5-4 lead with less than five minutes to play. Then, just 58 seconds later, New York scored shorthanded after a sequence that left the Predators less than pleased as they disagreed with a potential penalty call just seconds before the goal.
But instead of those moments of frustration sinking the Preds, they instead took advantage of a late power-play opportunity as Stamkos rifled home his second of the night with the extra skater to get back to within one. Then, with Annunen pulled, another Stamkos shot was tipped by Bunting off a New York defender and into the cage with 39 seconds to play.
“We were on our toes,” Marchessault said. “We know that there's time left… So it was honestly good for us. We found a way to win the hockey game, and it's been hard for us this year to do that, but tonight we did.”
“It was one of those moments where it's like, again, we played pretty solid,” Stamkos said. “They were opportunistic, scoring on their chances, and then in a span of a minute, they scored two goals. And you're like, here we go again. But we stuck with it… It hasn't happened that way all year, and it's a game that you have some fun. Hopefully guys can get some confidence and build on it.”
In the overtime session, both teams traded chances - including a hit post for the Islanders - before Svechkov took a pass from Brady Skjei, struck down the slot and won it on a perfectly placed shot to send the Nashville crowd into a frenzy and give the Preds arguably their most entertaining win of the season.
“Received the pass, a couple steps, shoot and score - so, that’s it,” Svechkov laughed.
Sounds simple, right?
“Well, it's a little bit strange, because I was just talking about how we can't get the puck across the line, and we got seven tonight,” Richards said. “And, on the flip side we gave up six…but it's just been that kind of year, and this one feels good. Obviously, coming out on the right side of it, finding a way to score [seven] goals - that's great, but you can see the enjoyment of the players afterwards. This one felt good. It felt good in a lot of different ways.”
Notes:
Prior to Tuesday’s game, the Predators reassigned forward Kieffer Bellows and defenseman Spencer Stastney to Milwaukee. Jonathan Marchessault returned to the Nashville lineup on Tuesday after missing four games with a lower-body injury.
Per NHL Stats, Tuesday marked the fourth time in franchise history in which the Predators erased a multi-goal deficit within the final three minutes of regulation and won, tied with the Canadiens and Sabres for the second most among all teams since Nashville’s inaugural season in 1998-99. The Flames (5) are the only club with more.
Filip Forsberg secured his already franchise-record fifth 30-goal season. He became the sixth Swedish player to reach the plateau in as many seasons, joining Mats Sundin (13), Markus Naslund (6), Kent Nilsson (5), William Nylander (5) and Tomas Sandstrom (5).
The Predators will now head out for their final road trip of the season that begins Thursday in their first-ever trip to Salt Lake City to face the Utah Hockey Club. Nashville will then finish the trip on Saturday night in Las Vegas before heading home for two more contests to close out the campaign.
