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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Patric Hornqvist and Kevin Klein scored goals 1:43 apart midway through the third period to lead the Nashville Predators to a 4-2 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.

The Predators are on a season-high three-game winning streak. Dallas lost for the second time in two nights.

The teams traded power-play goals in the first. Steve Ott scored for Dallas and Shea Weber answered for Nashville.

With the Stars on the power play, Brad Richards sent a wrist shot on goal from the left point. Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne stopped that shot, but Ott was able to pounce on the rebound and beat Rinne on the stick side.

James Neal also assisted on Ott's goal, giving him a point in a career-high six consecutive games.

Ott returned to the Stars lineup on Saturday after serving a two-game suspension for a low hit he delivered to St. Louis defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo on Oct. 24.

Dallas took a 2-1 lead at 2:15 of the second on a goal by Brian Sutherby, but Nashville countered 62 seconds later on Steve Sullivan's first goal since the season opener in Dallas.

Nashville took its first lead at 10:59 of the third period when Hornqvist picked up a loose puck in the Dallas crease and put a wrist shot underneath the crossbar for his third of the season.

Klein put the Predators in front 4-2 at 11:42 with a slap shot through traffic from the right point.

Rinne made 27 saves to record his fourth consecutive win. Alex Auld turned aside 29 shots in the loss.

NOTES: This was the third meeting between the teams this season. They won't play each other again until they finish the season series on March 23 in Nashville. ... Dallas G Marty Turco missed his second consecutive game because of flulike symptoms. The Predators have scored a power-play goal in three consecutive games for the first time this season. Nashville RW Martin Erat missed his second straight game because of a lower body injury.

POST-GAME LOCKER ROOM QUOTES:
Head Coach Barry Trotz
On tonight’s goals…
If you look at all the goals, there was one common theme – someone was in front of the net. On two of the goals Legwand was in front, one time there was Ward – Santorelli and Hornqvist also made themselves comfortable there. Goals are hard to come by – you’ve got to go to the hard places, and guys did, and you get rewarded by different elements. It was all started by guys getting to the net.

There’s been talk that we weren’t scoring much, and we just said ‘goals will come, just go to the net. Let’s make sure we’re doing that constantly.’ It started with the third period. I thought J.P. Dumont, Steve Sullivan and David Legwand had some really good shifts. Sullivan scores, Legwand is right in front – he did a great job screening. They followed that up with another good shift, and then Dallas ended up taking a penalty. Those guys really stepped up. I thought David Legwand played outstanding. It didn’t show much on the scoresheet, but he was involved in a couple of goals. He was going to the net and he was in front on two of the goals. That line was really buzzing, especially in the third. They led the way and everybody followed.

On the club’s penalty killing…
That 3-on-5 penalty kill was really huge. Smithson had his stick broken and the other guys really dug in. Special teams were really big in the game. When it was 1-0, our power play responded and got us a goal and got it tied up. That was huge, no question. If they score there, they go up 3-1 and it might be a different story. We actually got some momentum after that.

On the performance of Andreas Thuresson and Peter Olvecky…
They did a really good job. They brought real good energy. It was Andreas Thuresson’s first NHL game and he didn’t look out of place. He had lots of energy. He’s a big body, and was pretty strong on the wall. He gives us a penalty killer, another body that can move up and down the lineup.

The same with Peter Olvecky – he’s a real strong man. I saw him play in Rockford one night (last week), and he just dominated his shift physically. He can be a real force out there. For the most part there weren’t too many passengers at all.

On heading out on a four-game road trip to the West Coast…
This was a real big game for us. It builds some momentum and gets us back to .500. We dug ourselves a hole [early in the season], and now we’re back in the mix. We don’t mind going on the road. We’ve been .500 on the road. I’m looking forward to the West Coast trip, because we have had success, and hopefully we can do it again.


Forward Steve Sullivan
On the win tonight…
I thought we had a great first period and really outshot them. We got away from that a little bit but still had quite a bit of momentum. We think they seemed like a tired hockey club and they had to stay on their defense. We were making them turn around to go get the puck and making them go 200 feet every time. It got to them for the second game in a row so we took advantage of it in the third period.

On the comeback in the third period…
There was no doubt in our minds coming into the dressing room we thought we were taking the play to them even though they outshot us and had a few power plays in the second period. We had no doubt in our minds this was our game for the taking so we just have to go out and continue what we’re doing.


Forward Patric Hornqvist
On keeping his position…
It was the first time in 10 games I got the bounce right to my stick, so I just put it in – it was nice to get a goal. It was nice to see everybody work in the third period. If we keep playing like that we’ll have success the whole year.

On his goal…
I got the puck from Legwand on the blueline, I shot it and it was on the goal line. Hamhuis missed it and he threw back to the crease and I was lucky it came right to my stick so I just put it up. It was nice to see it went in.

On the comeback…
It was a big game for us. Now we know we can come back. In the third period we had three in a row so if we can keep this rolling we’ll be back on track. It’s nice to see – we know we have a good group of guys and if everybody comes together we know we’re going to win.


Forward J.P. Dumont
On the win…
We have a lot good guys on the team so there’s no excuse. We didn’t have the start we wanted to and we came back and showed a lot of character. Right now we’re playing some really good hockey and we all played together – it’s not only one guy or two guys it’s all the guys together. It’s definitely a big win for us.

On traffic in front of the net and setting screens…
We knew it was back-to-back for them and we tried to use our speed to be the first on the puck and win all those battles down low and create some traffic in front. We had some big goals and that’s the way we have to play.

On the comeback…
It’s definitely something we don’t want to do every night, but especially at home it’s good. The fans go home happy and now we are too. It’s definitely a big win but we knew and didn’t panic – we had the confidence that if we kept playing the same way some good things would happen for us and they definitely did tonight.