Ryan O’Reilly scored a game-winner late in the third period to help power the Nashville Predators past the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 on Thursday.
Roman Josi made a beautiful pass to O’Reilly, who tipped the game-winning goal past Spencer Knight to secure the victory for the Predators with 3:16 left in the contest.
Filip Forsberg, Steven Stamkos and Matthew Wood also buried for the Predators, while Justus Annunen improved to a perfect 4-0 in his career against the Blackhawks with the 21-save performance.
Connor Bedard was dominant in the loss while scoring for the Blackhawks and Tyler Bertuzzi also found the back of the net.
Spencer Knight finished with 22 saves for Chicago.
The Predators’ penalty kill survived early back-to-back opportunities for the Blackhawks including a double minor after Erik Haula headed off for high-sticking.
O’Reilly had the best chance to score the other way during the extended short-handed period as he spun around a defender and found the iron with 10:58 remaining in the first.
Forsberg began the scoring with his 25th goal of the season as he jumped on a poor clearance attempt and fired the puck past Knight to give the Predators a 1-0 lead with 6:10 remaining in the opening period.
Bedard knotted up the contest with a rocket of a shot just over four minutes into the second period. The young phenom’s early second-period goal was his career-high 24th of the season and fourth in the past five games.
Bedard broke in all alone with 10:57 left in the middle frame but failed to squeeze his low shot between the legs of Annunen.
Annunen denied Bedard once again after he took a feed from Andre Burakovsky, but the netminder got across quickly to swallow up the shot with 7:04 left in the second.
Bertuzzi grabbed the lead for the Blackhawks just over three minutes into the third period as he blocked a point shot and then sent the puck past Annunen for the power-play marker.
Nashville wasted little time finding an equalizer as Matthew Wood buried a power-play tally of his own with 12:48 remaining in the third.
Stamkos put the nail in the coffin with an empty-net goal in the final minute.
