Predators blow three-goal lead, recover to defeat Stars in shootout

Eeli Tolvanen had a goal and an assist, and Pekka Rinne made 35 saves for the Nashville Predators in a 4-3 shootout win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Sunday.

Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi scored in the shootout for the Predators (11-14-0), who ended a three-game losing streak.
Dallas rallied with three straight goals in 6:33 in the third period to tie the game 3-3.
"Going into the third 3-0, we wanted to close the game off better," Forsberg said. "But at the same time, we've got to get wins. We've got to get those two points. At the end of the day, that was obviously a strong effort to get that."
Jason Robertson had a goal and an assist, and Jake Oettinger made 17 saves for the Stars (7-8-5), who are 2-7-4 in their past 13 games.
"It just goes to show how resilient we are," said Robertson, who scored the only goal for Dallas in the shootout. "People could have written us off down 3-0 with 12 minutes to go or 10 minutes to go, but everyone on that bench knew that we had it within ourselves to come back."

Robertson capped the outburst, tying the game 3-3 at 19:03 on a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle.
Joe Pavelski pulled the Stars within 3-2 at 14:46 on a redirection of a shot from Denis Gurianov as the net came off its moorings. The goal was upheld after video review.
"There was definitely a couple that I wanted to have back and thought I should have scored earlier," Pavelski said. "And then the one I do score goes off my skate. It's one of those nights that's hard to figure out. [Rinne] was good over there and made some big saves. It took us a while to get to him."
Radek Faksa scored for the second straight game for the Stars to make it 3-1 at 12:30 on a backhand shot from the slot.

Mikael Granlund gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 15:31 of the first period on a redirection of a shot by Forsberg on the power play.
"Good net-front players, they kind of see what's going on up top and they're timing the shot a lot of times," Nashville coach John Hynes said. "As the shooter is going to approach getting the puck to the net, that's when they set the screen. [Granlund] does a really good job. He's got good timing, he's fearless, he takes away the goalie's eyes, and that's why he's been an effective guy there."
Calle Jarnkrok made it 2-0 at 16:49 on a shot from the slot off a pass from Granlund. Forward Rem Pitlick got his first NHL point with an assist in his second NHL game.
Josi scored on a power play at 12:37 of the second period, but Dallas coach Rick Bowness challenged for goaltender interference by Granlund, and the goal was disallowed after video review.
Tolvanen scored with a slap shot 35 seconds later on the same power play to increase the lead to 3-0 at 13:12 of the second period. It was his fifth goal of the season and second in two games.
"My job has gotten a lot easier," Forsberg said. "I just try to find him and then usually it ends up in the back of the net. We obviously knew about it coming in, even before he made it over [to the NHL], we heard about that shot. Now you watch it in practice, and you watch it in the game, and it's great. It's definitely one of the best shots that I've seen, and we need him to use it more."
NOTES:Dallas defenseman John Klingberg missed the game because of the birth of his child. He was replaced by Mark Pysyk. … Stars forward Jamie Benn had an assist for his 699th NHL point. … Granlund's goal was the first allowed by Oettinger in the first period in nine games in the NHL (60 shots). … It was the second multipoint game in 23 NHL games for Tolvanen. … Pavelski had 10 shots on goal. He has six points (three goals, three assists) in the past seven games. … Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen had two assists playing 32:30.