Ellis Steals 2 Points for the Preds

Ville Koistinen scored his second goal of the season at the 2:28 mark of overtime as the Predators rallied from two goals down to post a 4-3 OT win at San Jose on Tuesday night. The win, though, was largely possible due to the heroics of Dan Ellis. The Nashville netminder made 54 saves in the game, including 17 stops with the Preds shorthanded.

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Ryan Suter paced the Nashville offense with two points, including the overtime-forcing goal with 6:27 remaining in regulation. On the power-play, David Legwand curled behind the net and passed the puck to Jason Arnott on the left wing boards. Legwand set up at the near side post, received a pass back from Arnott, and quickly relayed a pass across the top of the goal crease to J.P. Dumont at the far post. San Jose netminder Brian Boucher made a sensational diving save on Dumont, but Suter pinched in from the point and batted the rebound out of the air for his second goal of the season, just after the power-play expired.

Ellis made sure the game went to overtime, robbing Ryane Clowe with under two seconds left in regulation. Ellis then stoned Patrick Marleau on a breakaway 1:06 into the extra period.

Nashville won the game off a faceoff play. Radek Bonk won the draw and Rich Peverley pushed it back to Koistinen at the point. Koistinen settled the puck and hammered a shot from the left wing point over Boucher’s glove shoulder for the win.

The Predators killed off four early shorthanded situations but were unable to escape the first period unscathed. Setoguchi opened the scoring with 3:08 remaining in the opening frame. Marleau carried the play innocently down the right wing in transition. Nashville’s defense stepped up to pressure Marleau and he curled back, fed a pass to defenseman Brad Lukowich cutting down the center slot. Lukowich one-touched a pass to Setoguchi in the left wing faceoff circle for a one-timer that beat Dan Ellis.

The Sharks out-shot the Predators 21-6 in the first period, but Ellis made several spectacular saves to keep the Preds in the game.

San Jose extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal at the 16:53 mark of the second period. Ellis made a big save on Setoguchi and followed it with a sensational sprawling on Joe Thornton in front, but Rob Blake pinched in from the point and banged home the rebound for his second goal of the season.

Arnott started the Preds come back 1:06 later. The play started with an innocent dump-in by Patric Hornqvist from the red line. The puck took a hop in front of Boucher, leading to a big rebound. Arnott followed the play hard and backhanded the bouncing puck five-hole for his seventh goal of the season.

Twenty seconds into the third period Rich Peverley had a look at a vacant net, but was unable to corral the loose puck. After back and forth flow, Vernon Fiddler eventually netted the equalizer 5:42 into the third, snapping home a shot from between the faceoff circles.

The Sharks answered back 27 seconds later on Setoguchi’s second goal of the night to re-claim the lead 3-2.

The Predators wrap up their six game road trip this weekend with back-to-back games at Anaheim on Friday night and at Los Angeles on Saturday night.