In Nashville, Brian Boyle scored and Viktor Arvidsson scored in the third period after the Montreal Canadiens had tied the game 1-1.
Those two goals were the difference as the Predators defeated the Habs, 3-1.
For Boyle, it was his first strike with the Preds since coming over in a trade from the New Jersey Devils.
“Less thinking, more reacting just to the system and just what guys’ tendencies are and what they’re going to do,” Boyle said. “I didn’t know much about a bunch of the forwards here but learned pretty quick that they’re pretty much all fast. They all compete. So it’s good to be in the mix with them.”
Pekka Rinne made 34 saves to get the win.
Nashville improved to 34-21-5.
“Obviously, this time of the year and just looking at the standings and everything around it, I think it’s obviously a very big win,” Rinne said. “Especially after losing the last three.”
Tomas Tatar scored the Habs’ only goal of the game.
“We were definitely rusty in the first,” Canadiens captain Shea Weber said. “They were all over us. This is a building where they always come out in the first period as it is, and to come out of there 0-0, actually, we were satisfied, especially the way we played. We didn’t play very well. I thought we had a lot better second. The score didn’t indicate that, but came out in the third and it just kind of got away from us at the end.”
Ryan Hartman gave the Preds a 1-0 lead midway through the second period.
“That one felt [darn] good,” Hartman said. “That was a long time, the longest streak I’ve ever had at any level, so it was a good feeling.”
The Habs dropped to 31-19-7.
[WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Predators highlights]
Carey Price made 35 saves in the loss.
“In the second period, we seemed to get our legs going. We seemed to find our game, but we didn’t capitalize on our chances. We had lots of them, and that’s what probably hurt us in the end, is that we weren’t able to score in that second period.” Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said.
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