In Nashville, a four-goal third period lifted the Predators past the visiting Minnesota Wild, 5-2.
Five different skaters had strikes for the Preds and newcomer Matt Duchene had three assists in the win.
“Even when we were down 2-1, I don’t think we ever thought we weren’t going to win the game,” said Duchene, who signed a seven-year contract with the Predators on July 1. “Start to finish, we were the better team. … We had everyone going, every line was going.”
Ryan Ellis had staked the Predators to a first period, 1-0 lead.
The Wild held a 2-1 lead heading into the third period and then collapsed.
“Really tough,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Definite mistakes on each one of those goals that we either went over or we should have enough experience to know what to do in that situation.”
Pekka Rinne made 22 saves in the win.
Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba had helped the Wild build their 2-1 lead with goals in th4e middle frame.
Goals from Mikael Granlund, Austin Watson and viktor Arvidsson erased the Preds’ deficit for a 4-2 lead in the third period.
“I thought that [coach Peter Laviolette] woke us up at the second intermission,” Rinne said. “He wasn’t happy with the second period. We really stepped it up in the third, and guys did a great job. Obviously, four goals in the third, that’s huge.”
Filip Forsberg added a late empty net goal to seal the victory.
“I thought we got better every period, and we got rewarded at the end of the day,” Duchene said. “This is a veteran team in here. This is a team that’s played a lot of big games and guys that know how to win games. I think we just played a mature game and we didn’t change a thing.”
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Predators highlights]
Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves in the loss.
“We didn’t get much through. It starts off when you take two penalties in the first [5:52],” Boudreau said after the loss. “All of a sudden, they’re outshooting you 9-0 or 9-1. It looks a little worse than it is at that stage. When we started doing what we were supposed to do, we were creating opportunities. We were just giving the puck away too much in the neutral zone to that team, and that’s what they thrive on.”
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