Wrapping up a grueling portion of their schedule, the Panthers, who have played the second-most road games in the NHL, will now play nine of their next 10 games at FLA Live Arena.
At 28-25-6, Florida sits one point out of a playoff spot at the time of this writing.
"We've certainly paid for it in full, and now we've got to make the most of it," head coach Paul Maurice said of the schedule. "We've got a great opportunity to play in front of our fans and get them excited."
Opening the scoring for the Predators, Tommy Novak carried the puck into the right circle and picked a corner over Sergei Bobrovsky's left shoulder to make it 1-0 at 2:36 of the first period.
Taking the ice for the 500th game of his NHL career, Nick Cousins, who suited up for the Predators from 2020-21 to 2021-22, got the game tied up for the Panthers when he threaded a quick wrist shot from the high slot through Keivn Lankinen's five-hole to make it 1-1 at 7:55.
At 12:09, Matthew Tkachuk netted his 28th goal of the season when he re-directed a shot from Brand Montour into the cage to put the Panthers up 2-1. But that lead was short-lived as just 47 seconds later Matt Duchene found the back of the net for the Predators to make it 2-2 at 12:56.
On the power play, Ryan Johansen directed a pass from Roman Josi past Bobrovsky from on the doorstep to put the Predators on top 3-2. Adding to their lead in the second period, Colton Sissons slipped behind the defense and beat Bobrovsky on a breakaway to make it 4-2 at 7:40.
After that goal, Spencer Knight took over in net for the Panthers.
"I got Bob out of there because I didn't think it was going to be a goaltender deciding the game," Maurice said of the decision. "For us, he's played a lot of hockey. That's an awful lot for him, so we got him a little bit of rest and got Spencer some work."
With the Predators continuing to find open looks, they added another goal when Josi locked, loaded and fired a slap shot from the left circle that sailed into the far corner of the twine to make it 5-2 at 16:23.
On another power play in the third period, Novak netted his second goal of the game when he fired a shot from behind the net off of Knight's leg and in to make it 6-2 at 8:58. On their own man advantage soon after, Sam Reinhart tipped in a shot to cut Florida's deficit to 6-3 at 9:42.
With 5:46 left in regulation, Yakov Trenin cashed in on the empty net to make it 7-3.
"There's expectations in the room," Tkachuk said. "We're still making a push and we're still right there. We have a lot of home games we still have to take care of, but we can't wait any longer."
