ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Patrick Eaves scored the only goal in the shootout and Jonathan Bernier made saves on four of the Nashville misses as the Anaheim Ducks scored a 4-3 comeback victory over the Predators on Tuesday night.
After both teams missed on their first four opportunities, Eaves snapped a wrist shot past Predators goalie Pekka Rinne. Bernier responded by making a pad save on Ryan Johansen's try to lift the Ducks (34-22-10), who twice erased two-goal deficits to gain a critical victory at Honda Center.
It didn't look good for the Ducks midway through the second as Nashville grabbed a 3-1 lead when the scorching Filip Forsberg used Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf as a screen and snapped a shot past Bernier for a shorthanded goal. Forsberg got his chance on a Cam Fowler turnover.
Instead of being crushed by the score and fading away, the Ducks stepped up their attack and kept charging back.
New addition Eaves was right in the middle of it all. He didn't get a point on Nick Ritchie's goal but his occupying space in front of the net had P.K. Subban defending in and let Ritchie jump up to put in a rebound created by Getzlaf's shot.
Getzlaf earned his third point of the night in the final minute of the second when Eaves again created havoc in front, this time grabbing a loose puck and feeding Rickard Rakell as the winger put a shot in off Predators center Vernon Fiddler for his team-leading 27th goal and a 3-3 tie.
The Ducks faced their first two-goal deficit just a little more than six minutes in. Colin Wilson scored on a neat backhand shot off a pass from James Neal as the winger was falling to the ice.
Ryan Ellis, who missed Nashville's game Saturday against Chicago because of a lower-body injury, followed with a slap shot past Bernier on the power play.
But that seemed to fire up the Ducks, who became ornery and started stirring things up with the Predators. And then they got their dormant power play out of its long hibernation.
Rinne couldn't close down Sami Vatanen's point shot with his glove and Getzlaf jumped on the rebound and swept it in for the Ducks' first man-advantage goal in 10 games. It also snapped a 1-for-35 drought that spanned 13 games to Jan. 31.
Near the end of the first period, Ducks defenseman Kevin Bieksa won a spirited fight with Nashville's Austin Watson. It seemed to charge them up for the rest of the night as they often controlled play from the start of the second on.
