Mikael Granlund scored the lone goal of a four-round shootout, helping the Nashville Predators cap a night to remember by beating the Dallas Stars 2-1 on Thursday.
The Predators began the evening by honoring longtime goaltender Pekka Rinne before the game by raising his No. 35 jersey to the rafters. A fat catfish wrapped in a Rinne shirt hit the ice before the puck dropped, and a record crowd of 17,869 came out for the celebration.
Granlund improved to 2 of 2 in shootouts this season, sending a backhander past Jake Oettinger. Goalie Juuse Saros then stopped Jacob Peterson to seal the victory after making 27 saves.
Philip Tomasino scored in regulation for Nashville in its second straight win. The Predators came in holding the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference and padded their lead over the Stars, who have a game in hand, to five points.
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Jason Robertson scored for Dallas, which is trying to climb into playoff contention. The Stars, who flew into Nashville earlier Thursday because of weather, have lost two of three.
The Stars had their chances. Robertson had a shot hit the crossbar about 30 seconds into the Stars' lone power play of the third. The Stars had another man advantage in overtime after Granlund tripped John Klingberg, but Dallas is 0-of-14 on the power play over four straight games.
Saros, who lived with Rinne when he first arrived in Nashville, stopped Jamie Benn's shot off a 2-on-1 in the final seconds to send this to the shootout.
Dallas Stars
The game between the Central Division rivals got chippy quickly with Radek Faksa fighting Nashville rookie Tanner Jeannot 37 seconds after the puck dropped. Tomasino gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 11:56 of the first, bringing the puck up the left side before cutting across and beating Oettinger with a wrister.
Robertson tied it 1:21 into the second, scoring his team-high 10th goal on the road this season. Robertson has five goals and five assists in his last eight games away from Dallas.
POWER OUTAGE
Nashville has yet to score a power-play goal against Dallas this season. The Predators wound up taking only four shots in 10 minutes on the power play, including 8 in the second period.
GM MARK
Predators general manager David Poile became the NHL's first GM to reach 3,200 games with the regular season and playoffs combined. Poile is the only GM Nashville has ever had, and he was with Washington between Aug. 30, 1982, to May 12, 1997. Glen Sather is second with 3,025.
UP NEXT
Stars: Host Buffalo on Sunday.
Predators: Host Tampa Bay on Saturday night at Nissan Stadium in Nashville's first Stadium Series game.
