The Pittsburgh Penguins watched as the visiting Nashville Predators erased a 4-1 lead for the Pens before rallying late in the third period for a 6-4 win to sweep the weekend set from the Preds.
Jake Guentzel struck for a power play goal with 63 seconds left in regulation to get the winner for the Pens.
“We get an opportunity on the power play late in the game, and obviously those guys made the difference,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “My hope is that we can take a lot out of this game. … It’s a great opportunity for us to take lessons out of this without getting hurt, without getting stung in the win-loss column. So we’ve got to make sure we hold one another more accountable.”
Matt Murray got the win on 44 saves.
Mikael Granlund struck twice for the Predators.
“Not a good start, obviously. It wasn’t good enough at all,” Granlund said. “Second period, we started playing the way we can play, play with the puck and not just throwing it away. Winning some battles. We found a way to get back in the game, but that’s obviously a tough ending there.”
Craig Smith and Viktor Arvidsson added single markers for the Preds.
“I thought that the response in the second period was good. In the third period, we had a lot of shots. Generated a lot of chances,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “Gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game. Didn’t happen.”
Bryan Rust had two strikes for the Pens.
Alex Galchenyuk, Kris Letang and Dominik Kahun added single markers for the Pens.
“We started unbelievably well,” Rust said. “Kind of took our foot off the gas there and they pushed back really hard. We were on our heels a bit, probably in the last half of that game. … We’ve been in pretty much every situation you can think of this year.”
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Penguins highlights]
Juuse Saros surrendered three goals and made five saves before getting the hook.
“We all knew that was bad in the first,” Nashville’s ROman Josi said. “We need to show a response, especially after last night and losing that game at home. We need to come out strong, and we were mad about our first period. So it was a good response, but we have to do it for 60 (minutes).”
Pekka Rinne made 25 saves in an effort to keep the Predators in the game.
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