Cammalleri scores in OT as Devils edge Predators
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Michael Cammalleri's second goal of the day at 4:42 of overtime Saturday completed the New Jersey Devils' comeback from a three-goal deficit en route to a 5-4 victory over the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena.
Streaking down the left side, Cammalleri took a pass from Taylor Hall and scored his ninth goal of the season.
The result snapped a four-game losing skid for New Jersey (11-7-6) and ended a six-game winning streak at home for Nashville (11-8-4).
Keith Kinkaid (3-1-2) stopped 38 shots for the Devils, while Pekka Rinne (10-5-4) turned aside 17 of 22 shots in the defeat.
Two goals in the third period's first 55 seconds fueled New Jersey's rally. Cammalleri potted the rebound of Andy Greene's shot for his eighth goal at the 25-second mark, and Greene made it 4-3 when he converted the rebound of Vernon Fiddler's shot 30 seconds later.
The Devils equalized at 12:37 with Adam Henrique's fifth goal of the season on the power play. With Craig Smith in the box for hooking, Henrique took Travis Zajac's pass and whipped a wrister from the right faceoff circle into the net.
After a quiet first 15 minutes both ways, Nashville initiated scoring at 16:14 of the first period. Matt Irwin's wrister from the left point tipped off Kevin Fiala's stick and behind Kinkaid for Fiala's first goal of the day.
New Jersey tied it at 17:31 when Hall swatted in his sixth goal, using a baseball swing to beat Rinne after Kyle Quincey's wrister from the right faceoff circle hit the goalie and popped up in the air at the goalmouth.
But P.K. Subban gave the Predators a 2-1 lead at 19:20 with a wrister that struck Kinkaid and rolled behind him into the net. It was the sixth goal for Subban.
Nashville made it 3-1 at 6:02 of the second when Fiala parlayed Smith's great setup from the right half-wall into a tap-in goal, his fifth of the season.
Roman Josi tacked on his third goal at 14:31, rocketing a slapper from just inside the blue line, to up the Predators' lead to three goals.
NOTES: New Jersey placed LW Reid Boucher on waivers and Nashville snapped him up Saturday morning. The 23-year old Boucher played in nine games with the Devils this year, collecting a two assists. ... The Predators recalled D Matt Pardy and RW Miikka Salomaki from their AHL affiliate in Milwaukee on Saturday morning. Salomaki sustained a lower-body injury while with the Admirals on Friday night on a conditioning assignment. ... New Jersey scratches were D Jon Merrill, C Jacob Josefson and C Sergey Kalinin. ... Nashville scratched Pardy and LW Pontus Aberg.