Forsberg Ties It Then Wins It, Preds Top Sabres in OT

The legend continues.
Filip Forsberg scored late in the third period to tie it, before tallying the game-winner in overtime as the Nashville Predators came back to defeat the Buffalo Sabres by a 5-4 final on Tuesday night at KeyBank Center. It's Nashville's fourth consecutive victory, the first time they've done it this season, giving them 32 wins and 73 points overall.
And Forsberg simply cannot be stopped.

"We talked about this game being a really big game because we knew we were coming from a home stand, we know we have a big game coming up in Montreal and this one could easily get lost in the shuffle," Nashville Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. "The start wasn't good, it took us a while to get our legs under us and get up to speed, but I really like the way we fought for these two points… to get them both is huge."
Two goals in a 94-second span put the Sabres ahead 2-0 in the final five minutes of the first. First, Brian Gionta banked a puck off Pekka Rinne's back and into the net. Next, Kyle Okposo fired home a loose puck in the slot off a rebound chance.
Nashville got one back before the period was out as the puck squirted through neutral ice and into the high slot where Mike Fisher went charging after it. After Robin Lehner's failed dive to knock the puck out of danger, Fisher was on the doorstep to slam the puck across the line, cutting the Sabres lead to 2-1.
"That goal from Fish at the end of the period was huge to get the game back in our hands a little bit," Forsberg said. "For two periods, we played great. The second period, we could've scored more goals than we did, but we got it done in the third."

Just over two minutes into the middle period, the puck rebounded in Nashville's favor to an open Colin Wilson at the side of the Buffalo cage, where No. 33 registered his fourth goal in the last seven games.
The score did not stay even for long, however. Three-and-a-half minutes after Wilson's 11th, Evander Kane polished off a Sabres' 2-on-1 opportunity with a shot over the shoulder of Pekka Rinne. Their lead re-established, Buffalo withstood Nashville's push over the next 14 minutes and preserved their advantage into the third.
In the opening minute of the third period, Jake McCabe's second of the campaign put the Sabres up by two again. But then No. 9 in white took over.

Forsberg extended his season-high point streak to six games with a cross-ice feed that Ryan Johansen finished off with a shot under the arm of Lehner to bring the Preds to within one, and then with less than three minutes remaining in regulation, Forsberg sniped his 25th of the season to even the score at 4-4 and guarantee the Preds at least a point.
After Nashville managed to kill off a Buffalo power play to start overtime, it was Forsberg one more time, roofing a shot to the top corner to complete the comeback and give the Predators one of their more dramatic victories in recent memory.
"You're faced with an opportunity," defenseman P.K. Subban said. "You look at the game and you say, 'hey, listen, maybe it's not our game, and we pack it in and go to Montreal,' but we still believed] in this room. You have to give the leadership group credit... We just did so many things well down the stretch in the third period, we deserved that win."
**Scoresberg… Again:**
**[Video: NSH@BUF: Forsberg cuts in, nets late game-tying goal**
Peter Laviolette didn't want the game in anyone else's hands.
"There's nobody else you want to have the puck on his stick in the closing minutes of the third period to get it to overtime," Nashville's head coach said of Filip Forsberg. "Then in overtime, that's the guy who has to have it on his stick right now. He looks really confident to me."
Does he ever.
With 14 points in his last six games, including two more goals - one to tie it, the other to win it - and an assist on Tuesday in Buffalo, Forsberg extended his goal streak to five games overall, including two hat tricks last week. In fact, he is the first player to score 10 goals in a five-game span since Pavel Bure did it in 2001.
So has P.K. Subban ever seen anything like this?
"No. No I haven't," Subban said definitively after the game. "He's the best player in the League right now the way he's playing. He's just got to continue, whatever he's doing, I don't know what it is, just keep doing it."

"I can't say [I'm the best player]," Forsberg said as Austin Watson shouted "Yes, you are," across the dressing room. "There's too many great players, but I'm just happy to help the team to get the two points.
"It's rare what's going on right now, but it's fun."

Notes:
Preds Captain Mike Fisher skated in his 400th game with Nashville. With this first-period tally, the center tied Jason Arnott for fourth on the franchise's all-time, goal-scoring list.
Colin Wilson's 11th goal of the season put him in sole possession of 10th place on the all-time Preds goal scoring list with 94 career tallies.
Ryan Johansen extended his point streak to five games on the evening and Roman Josi has points in six straight.
Look for a feature and video
on NashvillePredators.com Wednesday morning on P.K. Subban's return to Montreal to face the organization who drafted and developed him. The Preds face the Canadiens on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CT (with coverage on Fox Sports Tennessee and 102.5 The Game).