NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Filip Forsberg scored 18 seconds into overtime and Juuse Saros made 38 saves in his fifth straight victory as the Nashville Predators beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Gustav Nyquist and Michael McCarron also scored for Nashville, which has won five of its last six games.
“It wasn’t our best, but I’m proud of the way that we gutted it out,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said.
Sean Couturier and Travis Sanheim scored for the Flyers, who had their four-game winning streak halted. Samuel Ersson made 18 saves for Philadelphia and had his four-game win streak stopped. The Flyers are 4-0-2 in their last six games.
“We were a good team tonight,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “I don’t have one problem with the team tonight.”
In overtime, Ersson stopped Forsberg’s initial shot from the left side. Forsberg streaked toward the crease, grabbed the loose rebound that slipped behind Ersson and stuffed in the winner.
“I knew it was somewhere over there, I didn’t see it, but I kind of had a feeling that he didn’t have it in front of him,” Forsberg said. “I was able to find it pretty cleanly thankfully, so it was good.”
It was the second first-minute of overtime goal in two weeks for Forsberg. He did the same 14 seconds into the tiebreaker Nov. 28 against Pittsburgh.
Nyquist scored the game’s first goal at 9:42 of the first period when he redirected Alexandre Carrier’s shot from the top of the right circle past Ersson.
The Flyers carried the play in the first, outshooting Nashville 15-7, including eight shots on Saros in their three opportunities on the power play.
“You see a guy working in net like that, you want to come out and win that game for guys like that,” McCarron said.
For the game, Philadelphia come up empty on their four opportunities with the man advantage. The Flyers entered Tuesday with the league’s worst road power play with a 6.1% success rate.
McCarron doubled the Nashville lead at 3:05 of the second. On a delayed penalty to Philadelphia, a Luke Schenn shot pinballed off of traffic and came to McCarron in the slot. He grabbed the puck and fired a wrist shot high to Ersson’s stick side.
McCarron’s goal was one of Nashville’s five shots on goal in the second.
Couturier cut Nashville’s lead with 23.5 second remaining in the second with a tough angle shot with his feet below the goal line, just 10 seconds after a Predators power play expired.
“It’s a huge point,” Couturier said. “Down two goals, find a way to get back in the game and get a big point. It’s definitely huge. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get the extra one.”
Sanheim tied the game at 2 at 6:49 of the third.
UP NEXT
Flyers: Host Washington Capitals on Thursday.
Predators: Visit Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.
