NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Roman Josi scored at 2:13 of overtime and the Nashville Predators beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Saturday night.
Ryan O’Reilly scored two power-play goals and Juuse Saros made 33 saves for the Predators, who have won three of four. Luke Evangelista and Filip Forsberg each had two assists.
“Special teams were really key second and third period,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “It was a real gritty win.”
William Nylander and Mark Giordano scored and Ilya Samsonov made 21 saves for Toronto, which concluded its season-high five-game road trip at 3-1-1.
“All in all, it’s an important point for us,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I think there’s a lot of good things to take away from this game and really through this trip.”
In overtime, Josi took a drop pass from Evangelista just inside the blue line and beat Samsonov on the blocker side with a wrist shot from the high slot for his first goal of the season.
“OT, obviously, is always fun,” Josi said. “It’s a really good team over there, and to find a way to win is huge for us.”
Nylander scored the game’s first goal with 6:38 remaining in the opening period, with a one-timer from the left faceoff dot on a Toronto power play. He has at least one point in each of Toronto’s eight games this season, becoming the fourth Maple Leafs player to do so.
O’Reilly answered with a power-play goal of his own with 4:55 to go.
Toronto regained the lead with 7:14 left in the second on Giordano’s first goal of the season. The goal came after a prolonged shift in the Nashville zone, aided by a broken Predators stick and the long distance from the bench in the middle period.
“Their guy broke his stick, so it was basically like a 5-on-4,” Giordano said. “That’s a nice one when it crawls through the crease to you. It felt good.”
O’Reilly struck again on the power play with 4:52 remaining in the second for his first two-goal game since signing with Nashville as a free agent in the off-season after a brief stint with Toronto last year, following his trade there from St. Louis.
“It feels good for sure,” O’Reilly said. “Especially two for power play, it’s so important.”
Nashville has scored two power-play goals in three of their last four games.
Saros remains one of two NHL goalies to start every game for their team this season, along with Colorado’s Alexandar Georgiev.
UP NEXT
Maple Leafs: Host Los Angeles on Tuesday night.
Predators: At Vancouver on Tuesday night.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
Jim Diamond, The Associated Press
