The Nashville Preditors win to tie for first in the Central Division.
By Heather Engel / NHL.com Correspondent
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Nashville Predators moved into a tie for first place in the Central Division with a 3-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.
The Predators pulled even with the Winnipeg Jets, who were playing at the Minnesota Wild. Nashville and Winnipeg, each with two games remaining, are two points ahead of the St. Louis Blues, who have three games left.
Ryan Johansen scored a third-period goal, and P.K. Subban had a goal and an assist for Nashville (45-29-6).
Jeff Skinner scored his NHL career-high 38th goal for Buffalo (31-39-10), which lost a season-high eighth straight game.
Johansen capitalized on a bounce off the end boards and lifted a backhand into an open net for 3-2 lead at 6:32 of the third.
Skinner tied it 2-2 with five seconds left in the second period. Brandon Montour’s shot hit the end boards and bounced to Skinner to the left of the net.
Smith gave Nashville a 1-0 lead when he screened Carter Hutton and tipped in Subban’s shot from the blue line at 8:49 of the first period.
Kyle Okposo got a stick on a rebound in front to tie it 1-1 at 16:04.
Subban put the Predators up 2-1 44 seconds into the second period. The defenseman knocked down Rasmus Dahlin’s attempt to bring it into the Nashville zone and went the other way before scoring from the top of the right circle.
Evan Rodrigues picked up his 19th and 20th assists of the season for Buffalo in the game.
Up next
The Sabres have 2 games left in the season, Thursday in the home finale against the Ottawa Senators, then they close out the season on Saturday in Detroit against the Red Wings.