Spurgeon's OT goal lifts Wild to 11th straight victory
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Minnesota Wild's franchise-record winning streak improved to 11 games in dramatic fashion.
Defenseman Jared Spurgeon scored at 2:46 of overtime Tuesday night to lift Minnesota past the Nashville Predators 3-2 at Bridgestone Arena.
Spurgeon ripped a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle past Pekka Rinne (13-9-5) off a feed from Jordan Schroeder as the Wild improved to 22-8-4 with their 10th road win of the season.
Devan Dubnyk (18-6-3) came up with 28 stops for the Wild, while Rinne made 36 saves for the Predators, 13 in a busy third period.
Rinne kept the game tied during the third period with a pair of glove saves on point-blank chances by Matt Dumba, then denied Dumba twice more during a power play after Mattias Ekholm high-sticked Charlie Coyle at 16:19.
However, it wasn't enough to keep Nashville (15-13-6) from falling to 2-3-3 at home in December and 1-6 in games decided after regulation.
Minnesota started the scoring at 5:53 of the first period with a power-play marker from Zach Parise. Dumba unleashed a point blast that Parise tipped home for his sixth goal, the only tally of a period that the Wild dominated to the tune of a 12-5 advantage in shots on goal.
Nashville tied it at 4:39 of the second as Filip Forsberg scored his sixth goal -- his third in the last four games -- with a wrister from between the faceoff circles that caromed off the right post.
The Wild regained the lead 1:22 later when Chris Stewart finished a pretty passing sequence with a wrister for his sixth goal of the year.
But the Predators evened the score again on Reid Boucher's first goal in only his second game with them. Boucher got a breakaway and swiped a backhander that made it through Dubnyk's legs at 8:55.
NOTES: Minnesota LW Zach Parise (strep throat) and C Erik Haula (lower-body injury) returned to the lineup after two and three-game absences, respectively. ... Nashville D P.K. Subban (upper-body injury) sat out his fifth straight game and was scheduled to meet with doctors Tuesday night concerning the injury that has kept him out since Dec. 17. ... The Wild scratched D Nate Prosser and RW Kurtis Gabriel. ... Predators scratches were D Adam Pardy and C Colton Sissons.