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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -Jason Arnott tied it with 3 seconds left in regulation, and Steve Sullivan scored the only goal in a shootout to give the Nashville Predators a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.

Sullivan, playing in his 14th game of the season after nearly a two-year layoff due to a back injury, beat Chris Mason with a wrister low to the glove side.

Predators goalie Pekka Rinne stopped Brad Boyes, Andy McDonald and T.J. Oshie in the shootout.

The loss was St. Louis' second in a row. In both losses, the Blues allowed two-goal leads to slip away.

With the Blues leading 3-2 in the final seconds of the third period, David Legwand slid a pass from the left side to the front of the St. Louis goal. Arnott was able to connect with his backhand and beat Mason on the stick side.

Defensemen Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Klein added goals for Nashville.

David Backes, David Perron and Brad Winchester scored in regulation for St. Louis, and Boyes had two assists.

Notes: David Legwand assisted on Hamhuis' first period goal, giving him 222 assists as a Predator, which ties former Nashville defenseman Kimmo Timonen for the franchise record. ... Arnott extended his season-high point scoring streak to six games. ... Boyes played in his 300th career NHL game. ... The teams will meet twice more over the next nine days.

Post-Game Quotes:
Head Coach Barry Trotz
On the overall play of the game…
It seemed like an uphill battle the whole time. We came out and we had talked about having a good first period and a good start because they really come out hard. They really skate and they come at you with four lines. With their first goal, we just didn’t manage the puck very well. We tried to force a pass up the middle and basically turned it over. They came back and scored and we tried to get too cute on the first two goals and then we got beat out of the corner for the second goal.

With the third goal was the one that really deflated us because of the fact that right before that we were coming on them pretty well and Sullivan had two glorious chances from the side. Arnott rattled one off of the crossbar and the next thing you know, they come down, we tried to get cute, and turned the puck over. They threw it up, had a two-on-two and they were basically throwing it at the net and it hit Dan Hamhuis’ stick and went right to their guy high in the slot and shot it right away.

On Nashville’s goals…
The goal that we scored in the third gave us a lot of life and we came at them pretty hard and with the goalie pulled, I think for the first time this year that we’ve scored during the goalie pull. That took us into the overtime and the shootout.

On Arnott and Sullivan making big plays…
That’s what you want. You want your top guys to get on the scoreboard. We did get two goals from our defense.

On Nashville’s defense…
I didn’t think our defense managed the puck particularly well, as well as they can. At the same time, there were a couple of times when our forwards didn’t give them the chance either. Those are things that we are going to go over tomorrow.

On getting the win…
It was a good character win. St. Louis is a hard team to come back on. They check pretty well and they’ve got good goaltending. It’s a huge win. We get a little ground on them and that’s huge for us.

On Sullivan’s confidence boosting because of the game-winner…
Sullivan is a guy that just wants to win but he wants to get that first goal. He is expected to produce some offense and goal scoring is part of it. It is a little bit of an elephant off of his back. Hopefully he’ll get hot and be a really big offensive boost for us.

Goaltender Pekka Rinne
On tonight’s game in general…
What a comeback. We haven’t had too many late goals when the goalie is pulled which is huge. It’s getting close to playoff time for us and we need every single point and the two points tonight was great.

Being successful in net during shootout…
You try to be patient, every team uses really skilled guys so you wait for a deke rather than a shot. I tried to read the players and I tried to be patient…. I feel lucky.

Forward Steve Sullivan
I’ve been talking to my line mates and coaches and it’s not my production on the score sheet, it’s my ability to continue to make progress every single game. As long as I can continue doing that, hopefully the points will come up offensively.

On tonight after shots hit crossbars, etc…
I’m starting to get scoring chances on a nightly basis where as before they were very sporadic. It’s a good sign that I’m spending more time in front of the net, spending more time in the areas I need to go in order to score more goals. Hopefully the shots keep getting more accurate. I’m practicing to put a little more velocity on it.

On going against past teammate Mason in shootout…
I’m not afraid to say that throughout all of our shootouts, we try to avoid Mason as much as possible. To go against him was a treat tonight; glad I was able to sneak one by him. He’s very good at them. I don’t have too many shootout moves, you have to stick with what you can do.

Forward Jason Arnott
On getting two points…
We didn’t start out the way we wanted to but we hung in there and the most important thing is that we came out with two points. Doesn’t matter how you get them, just how many you get. It was a good win for us at home and now we have to get ready for the next one.

Final few seconds…
Most of the time when you’re out there, you just try to stay as loose as possible, and stay away from their defenders. We had enough guys out on the other sides and the puck just popped out. I took a whack at it and it went in.

On Sullivan’s game-winning goal…
He’s so good at shootouts, even at practice. It’s great for him and good for his confidence. It is great for the team too.

Losing to team below in standings…
That would have put us in a real bad position because every game is so important. When you play the teams in your own division, it’s even more important to try to get as many points off them as possible.