Predators Rally to Beat Stars – Ekholm Scores in OT


DALLAS — Mattias Ekholm scored 2:27 into overtime, and the Nashville Predators rallied to beat the Dallas Stars 5-4 on Saturday.

Nashville killed off a Dallas power play for the first part of OT, and then Ekholm took a cross-ice pass from Kyle Turris and sent the puck over Stars goalie Ben Bishop for the win.

The Predators (13-3-0) improved to 8-0 on the road this season. They rallied to tie the game three times, the last on Roman Josi’s power-play goal with 43 seconds left in the third period.

Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, Tyler Pitlick and rookie Denis Gurianov scored for Dallas (9-6-2), which lost for the third time in four games. Bishop finished with 29 stops.

Josi and Ryan Johansen each had a goal and an assist for Nashville. Ryan Hartman and Yannick Weber also scored, and Juuse Saros had 20 saves.

Roman Josi Pekka Rinne Mattias Ekholm Predators
Roman Josi, Pekka Rinne and Mattias Ekholm, Nashville Predators (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Pitlick scored his third of the season 13:05 into the first, and the Stars opened a 3-1 lead on goals by Seguin and Spezza in the second period.

Hartman got the Predators on the board 12 seconds into the second, and Johansen and Weber tied the game again with goals in the first 1:54 of the third.

Dallas grabbed the lead for the last time when Gurianov scored his first career goal off a pass from rookie Ben Gleason with 11:02 left.

The Predators had a 14-4 advantage in shots on goal and the only two power plays in the first period, but the Stars scored the only goal.

Dallas scored on its first power play when Spezza sent in a slap shot from the left circle at 14:32 of the second.

NOTES: Dallas’ depleted defence corps received reinforcements. Joel Hanley and Gleason were recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League, and the Stars traded a seventh-round draft pick in 2020 to Buffalo for 30-year-old Taylor Fedun. Roman Polak was sick and couldn’t play Saturday. John Klingberg is expected to miss four weeks after surgery Friday to repair his broken left hand. Marc Methot (lower-body injury), Stephen Johns (neck/head) and Connor Carrick (ankle) also are out. Hanley and Gleason played. Methot could be back for Monday’s game, when Fedun would make his Dallas debut. … Predators F Viktor Arvidsson (lower body) returned after missing three games.

UP NEXT

Sharks: Play the third game in a five-game trip Monday at Anaheim.

Stars: Continue a four-game homestand against Columbus on Monday.

The Associated Press