Sharks coach David Quinn felt his team finished stronger than it did Friday, when he said it was demoralized after Nashville took a 3-1 lead.
"I actually thought that third period was the best period," Quinn said. "I really did. I liked our third period. Huge contrast to what we saw last night. Staying out of the box, I felt we were on top of them."
Kunin echoed his coach.
"I thought our third was really good," Kunin said. "They didn't sit back, and I thought we had a lot of looks. We played hard. We were on the attack. I thought we were a lot more physical, playing more inside tonight and just couldn't find a way to get one."
Kunin, whom the Predators traded to the Sharks on July 8, gave San Jose a 1-0 lead on the power play at 14:24 of the first period. Mario Ferraro fired a shot from the left circle, Oskar Lindblom chipped the rebound in front, and Kunin swiped his own rebound past Lankinen's left pad.
Niederreiter tied the game 1-1 at 4:35 of the second period. Johansen put the puck between the skates of defenseman Jaycob Megna as he cut to the net from the right circle, then sent a backhand pass to the right. Niederreiter banged it in at the side of the net.
"I just did a last-minute panic-button move, and it got through, and Nino went hard to the net and put it in," Johansen said.
Couture responded for San Jose 10 seconds later to make it 2-1 at 4:45, one-timing a pass from Steven Lorentz in the high slot past Lankinen's glove.
Forsberg tied the game 2-2 at 6:29, picking up his own rebound off the right post, wrapping around and banking in the puck off Kahkonen.
Each team travels home Sunday. The Predators' next game is against the Dallas Stars at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday. The Sharks' next game is against the Carolina Hurricanes at SAP Center on Friday.
"Obviously, there's so much work to do," Johansen said. "We've got 80 games left. But we should definitely feel pretty good about ourselves and know that when we're doing the right things on the ice we can be a successful team and create a lot of trouble for the opposition."