In Nashville, ythe Minnesota Wild’s Dmitry Kulikov scored off a breakaway with less than two seconds left in extra time on Sunday to hand the Predators a 5-4 loss. 
“I don’t get many [breakaways], so I’ve got to make sure when I get them,” Kulikov said. “We’re a confident group and we know we can score goals and turn games around.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves in the win.
“We just stick together,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “It doesn’t matter who is in our lineup. We have no complainers. We just go about our business. We were down to five [defensemen]. I think our forwards protected the [defensemen], but I think the [defensemen] did a really good job as well, obviously playing out of position, playing more minutes. It’s just a real good all-around game.”
The Wild improved to 51-21-7.
Joel Eriksson Ek hit for a double for Minnesota.
Nashville dropped to 44-29-6.
“Both teams battled hard,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “There was a lot of emotion, a lot of special teams, a lot of momentum swings. But I thought our guys really battled hard tonight. We earned a point. We’d like to get two points, but we’ve got to take some things out of it and get ready for [the] Calgary [Flames on Tuesday].”
The Wild’s Nick Bjugstad and Nashville’s Filip Forsberg exchanged goals in the first period, for Forsberg it was his 40th of the season.
Eriksson Ek and the Preds’ Matt Duchene each scored for a 2-2 deadlock.
“I think we’ve shown all year everybody can score, everybody can help any way they are asked to,” Eriksson Ek said. “It’s good for our team to have that depth.”
In a game of give and take, Nashville took a 3-2 lead off a goal from Ryan Johansen, but Eriksson Ek scored his second for a 3-3 tie.
Kevin Fiala put the Wild up, 4-3, before Dante Fabbro knotted the game at 4-4, and forcing the extra session.
“A lot of credit to our team and the guys in that locker room,” Fabbro said. “You look at the character we have and our leadership throughout the lineup. It’s unbelievable. Not [for] a second did we doubt we could come back and win the game. We fought to the very end. I’m really proud of this group and we just have to keep chugging along.”
David Rittich made 42 saves in the Preds loss.
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