Nashville's top line scored three goals while Jeremy Lauzon, Tommy Novak, and Juuso Pärssinen added goals to give the Predators a hard fought 6-3 win over the Dallas Stars.
The Nashville Predators returned to American Airlines Center for their second road game and third matchup of the season against the Dallas Stars. The teams split their first two meetings, but Nashville got the road win six days ago in a 4-3 game.
The Predators entered tonight's game off a poor home performance against the Anaheim Ducks while the Stars won both of their games this week against the Minnesota Wild, outscoring the Wild by a combined score of 11-2.
Kevin Lankinen got the start in net again against Dallas while Jake Oettinger was the starting goaltender for the Stars in his first game back since a mid-December injury.
The first shots of the game belonged to the Stars as they came out with the early offensive push. At 4:22 Mason Marchment headed to the penalty box for a trip on Alexandre Carrier, but the Predators power play only recorded one shot on goal and couldn't convert on the man advantage.
Nashville defended much of the first half of the opening period but got to their game as the period wound down. The teams headed into the first intermission with no score and Dallas with a 7-6 advantage in shots on goal.
The second period continued to be a battle back and forth until Jeremy Lauzon got Nashville on the board at 9:22. Lauzon cleaned up a loose puck coming across the high slot to score on Oettinger.
At 12:03 Cole Smith headed to the penalty box for a trip on Joe Pavelski to give the Stars their first power play chance of the game. Less than a minute into the man advantage, Jamie Benn headed to the penalty box for a four minute high stick penalty after catching Jeremy Lauzon with his stick. During the four-on-four, Tommy Novak scored from the circle at 13:51 to give Nashville a 2-0 lead.
The Predators pressured Oettinger for the remainder of the Benn penalty but couldn't convert. The teams finished the period playing five on five and headed into the second intermission with Nashville up 2-0.
Jani Hakanpää got the Stars on the board quickly in the third period with a goal at 1:09 to make it a one goal game. Nashville was able to answer back as Ryan O'Reilly batted a loose puck past Oettinger two-and-a-half minutes later.
A trip by Cole Smith gave the Stars their second power play chance at 4:10, but the Predators were able to kill off the two minute penalty. Not long after, a delayed penalty on Nashville added an extra attacker for the Stars, and Wyatt Johnston scored at 8:11 with a wrist shot.
A penalty by Tyler Seguin gave Nashville a power play chance at 9:49. Nashville won the faceoff and Filip Forsberg scored at 10:08 to give the Predators a 4-2 lead.
Filip Forsberg headed to the box at 12:05 for a boarding infraction, and the Dallas power play went to work. Former Predator Matt Duchene scored on a wide angle shot to get the Stars within one goal once again.
The march to the penalty box continued as Joel Hanley was whistled for tripping Tommy Novak at 14:43. Nashville recorded one shot on goal but couldn't convert on the opportunity. The teams returned to five a side.
With 2:39 remaining, Oettinger headed to the bench and the Stars brought on the extra attacker. The Predators won the defensive zone faceoff and Gustav Nyquist score an empty net goal at 17:27 to give Nashville a two goal lead once more.
Oettinger left the net again with just over a minute left in exchange for the extra attacker once again. With :30 remaining, Juuso Pärssinen stole the puck from Jamie Benn in the neutral zone and scored a second empty net goal to make the final score 6-3.