In Newark, the Nashville Predators’ Filip Forsberg‘s second goal of the game tied the with the New Jersey Devils on Thursday at 5-5, and forced extra time before the Preds skated off with a 6-5 win in the skills.
Matt Duchene had the deciding goal in the skills portion of the evening.
“You kind of hit rock bottom and now we’re coming on the way up and I know our best is yet to come,” Duchene said. “We’re working and we should feel great about these past two wins and bring that enthusiasm, that confidence and that swagger into Saturday (against the Vegas Golden Knights).”
Pekka Rinne made 27 saves in the win.
“Pekka was great when we needed him,” Duchene said. “Obviously you don’t want to give up five goals but the fact we’re scoring five is great. We need more of that. These were two huge wins and puts us in a great position.”
Pavel Zacha struck twice for the Devils.
“It was my first time playing against someone who coached me in the NHL,” Zacha said. “It was a challenge as it is every game. But this was a little special and you could see it was a high-paced game.”
The Devils held one-goal leads three times in the game.
“The effort is what stuck out to me the past two wins,” Forsberg said. “There are times when we’ve been down a couple of goals going into the third and we just quit playing. I think that’s the biggest thing … just our mentality. The belief is back, a little bit, and it’s showing.”
John Hayden, Nikita Gusev and Jesper Bratt added single markers for the Devils.
“It was a weird game; they scored, we scored, we scored, they scored,” New Jersey’s Nico Hischier said. “There were a lot of emotions, up and down. They battled hard and we battled hard and at the end it could have gone both sides and they just won. One shootout goal was the difference.”
Mattias Ekholm, Nick Bonino and Duchene all scored in regulation for Nashville.
“I came into a team that was good and well-coached, so maybe you make slight tweaks,” Predators head coach John Hynes said. “The biggest trend that I do like moving forward is our fortitude, toughness, belief and stick-to-itiveness.”
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Devils highlights]
Mackenzie Blackwood made 25 saves in the loss.
“I was looking forward to [the game] all day,” Devils head coach Alain Nasreddine said. “What would I feel like over on the other bench? After the national anthem and the drop of the puck, we looked at each other and that was it from there. You just try to focus on the game and what you have to do to help your team win.”
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