Nashville get two big points in win over Stars

In Nashville, the Predators got back to winning thanks to Juuse Saros who made 24 saves in a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars on penalties.

Ryan Johansen had the only goal in the skills competition.

“We’re feeling good,” Johansen said. “It’s a simple recipe to have fun. You go out, you come to the rink every day, you work hard, and we obviously love what we do, and just have fun every single day. Kind of getting back to the basics after a tough start (5-8-0 through Feb. 9). Just coming and putting our work boots on and working for each other and having fun. That kind of pointed us in the right direction and snowballed from there. We’ve had each other’s backs since day one, and that’s come out here in the last 15 games or so (12-3-0).”

Roope Hintz and Jamie Oleksiak scored for the Stars in regulation.

“We played great,” Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. “We played our butts off. Everyone did, for the fourth game in six nights. And to dominate the third period like we did, it’s disappointing just to get into overtime. But everyone on that team tonight, they worked their butts off. We played a really, really solid game.”

Dallas dropped to 15-14-11 with the loss.

“The more emotion there is out there, the more fun it is to play,” Dallas’ Jphn Klingberg said. “It’s obviously, I wouldn’t say easier to motivate, but it’s a lot more fun when it’s a grinding game like that. It’s huge points and these games are the ones that matter. That’s the ones you want to play.”

Ryan Ellis and Yakov Trenin were the Nashville strikers.

“We really focused on the competitiveness of the game,” Predators head coach John Hynes said. “We’re all aware of the standings. It’s the best time of year, and this is when the most competitive games have got to bring out the most competitive men.

“We talked about really enjoying the process. We have a lot of respect for Dallas. They’re a good team. They’re a hard team to play against. They’re really well coached, so we knew coming in, we talked about it this morning, it’s going to be Masters Sunday and it was going to be a playoff-type game for us. Just really proud of the way the guys have readied themselves for the games.”