Trailing 4-2 after 40 minutes, the San Jose Sharks struck for three unanswered goals in the third period to down the Predators in Nashville, 5-4.
Martin Jones made 25 saves to get the win as the Sharks improved to 5-3-1.
All three goals came past the halfway mark of the third period.
“We understand there’s no quit in this room,” Sharks forward Joe Pavelski said. “If you’ve got a two-goal lead, you’ve got to keep playing. We’ve been on the other end of that already this year, so there’s always time. We’re fairly a depth team. We’ve been rolling four lines. Guys are fresh in the third, so if we can find that little bit of edge and a bounce here or there, we should be able to be in games.”
Pavelski had a goal in the rally and Brent Burns, Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier, and Brenden Dillon each had goals.
“We have confidence in this group,” Dillon said. “We have confidence in this team. Just from Day One of training camp, we have a big goal in mind for us. [Nashville] is going to be one of those teams that’s going to be right there at the end. Coming into this building, here we are eight, nine games in, was a big test for us.”
The Preds dropped to 7-2-0 with the loss.
“We gave up a shorthanded goal,” Predators forward Colton Sissons said. “Obviously, we made it way too easy on him there. There was a bit of a miscommunication and just kind of left a guy alone coming up the ice. That’s one thing we definitely can’t do. They had some odd-man rushes there again and scored a big power-play goal. We knew how dangerous their power play was going into the night.”
Viktor Arvidsson scored twice for the Predators and Filip Forsberg and Craig Smith added single markers.
“It was a big gut check for us. We got through two periods, I thought we were playing OK. But obviously we were in a hole and they were opportunistic. I think we talked between the second and third about coming out and being a little harder around both nets. That commitment paid off,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said of the late rally.
[WATCH: All Sharks vs. Predators highlights]
Juuse Saros made 27 saves in the loss.
“We weren’t going to win out the rest of the season. We know that. Obviously, it stings a little more when you have a two-goal lead heading into the third in your own building. We don’t like that one bit, don’t get me wrong. But certainly things we can get better at and keep pushing forward, which we always do,” Nashville’s Colton Sissons said after the game.
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