In Nashville, the Predators chased the New Jersey Devils for 40 minutes on Thursday night, with the two teams tied, 3-3, after two periods. 
In the third period, Matt Duchene ended the chase by putting the Preds up, 4-3, en route to a 6-4 win.
“I think wins like that really give you a lot of confidence,” Nashville captain Roman Josi said. “You see what it takes to win, you see how we have to play to win. Those are three really good teams. To get the win the way we did definitely gives you some confidence.”
Filip Forsberg pushed the Nashville advantage to 5-3 in the third.
“I think we just kept attacking,” Nashville’s Roman Josi said. “Obviously, they’re a great team. They’re dangerous offensively, they’re fast. But we felt like we kept pushing and had some good looks. That [Duchene] goal obviously was huge and then another [by Forsberg]. But I thought we did a good job attacking and being confident and trying to go win it.”
Juuse Saros made 35 saves in the Nashville win.
“We did a good really good job in our structure in the neutral zone, kind of forcing a turnover,” Duchene said. “[Josi] made a good little play to me. I kind of had a little daylight, [and the] goalie made a good first save; he kind of read where I was shooting. I was just fortunate to be able to bang the next one in. It was a little bit ugly, but it doesn’t really matter how they go in, just the fact they do.”
The Predators improved to 24-18-6.
New Jersey got one back late in the third on a strike by Dawson Mercer to make it 5-4.
“We didn’t deserve to win that game,” Devils captain Nico Hischier said. “If you give [up] that many odd-man rushes, and even that many breakaways, you’re doing something wrong. It’s that simple. We did not deserve to win that game tonight.”
New Jersey dropped to 31-13-4.
“I thought it started with our puck play, our puck management wasn’t good,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “If you look at a couple of the goals, we handed them pucks. The first period wasn’t the way we wanted to play, but I thought the second period we were starting to hit our stride until we turned another puck over in our zone. And that has been an area of our strength; tonight it was a weakness.”
The two teams traded goals through the first 40 minutes with New Jersey taking leads with each strike.
New Jersey’s Jesper Bratt and the Preds’ Cody Glass each scored for a 1-1 tie in the first period.
tied it 1-1 at 12:24, banging in a loose puck following a shot by Tommy Novak on a power play.
Yegor Sharangovich restored the New Jersey lead at 2-1, but Cole Smith knotted it, again, 2-2.
“I think the ability to respond is obviously important and it was a factor tonight,” Predators coach John Hynes said. “But tonight I felt like for basically most of the game we were in control of the game, but we weren’t in control of the scoreboard at times. … I think if we’re going to be able to continue to play the right way and do the right things, we’re going to be able to put the puck in the back of the net.”
In the middle frame, Jack Hughes put New Jersey up, 3-2, before Mikael Granlund tied it, 3-3, headed to the third period.
Tanner Jeannot r scored into an empty net for the 6-4 final.
Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves in the loss.
“[Blackwood] was good tonight. You just ask for a chance to be in the game,” Devils defenseman Ryan Graves said. “They outshot us and, I don’t know, but I would assume out-chanced us. He was good. He gave us a chance to win so we need to be better for him.”
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