Stamkos has hat trick, Predators storm back to defeat Senators

NASHVILLE -- Steven Stamkos scored a hat trick, including the go-ahead goal late in the third period, and the Nashville Predators came back from a three-goal deficit to defeat the Ottawa Senators 5-3 at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday..

Nashville scored five unanswered goals after trailing 3-0 late in the second period.

“It was massive,” Stamkos said. “You don’t want to lose three straight. We’ve done a great job of not losing two straight. It has to mean more to our group than the other team over there, and we showed in the second half of the game that it did.”

With his second goal of the game, Stamkos tied it 3-3 on the power play at 10:07 of the third with a one-timer from below the left face-off circle off a cross-ice pass from Ryan O'Reilly. He then gave the Predators a 4-3 lead at 18:47 and completed the hat trick by batting in a pass from O’Reilly, who had won the puck behind the net.

Cole Smith added an empty-net goal at 19:33 to make it a 5-3 final.

O'Reilly had three assists, and Luke Evangelista had two assists for the Predators (24-22-4). Juuse Saros made 23 saves.

Stephen Halliday scored his first NHL goal, and Jake Sanderson had two assists for the Senators (23-20-7), who had their five-game point streak end (3-0-2). James Reimer made 21 saves.

“We didn’t play well enough to win for 60 minutes,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “I liked our first period. Took way too many penalties, especially in the third. Uncharacteristic of us to not get at least a point in a game like this. I didn’t think we had enough players that played a strong enough game for 60 minutes.”

Halliday, playing his 19th NHL game, gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 6:03 of the first period when he jammed in the rebound of a shot by Lars Eller.

“It was really fun,” Halliday said. “I thought me, [Eller] and [Dylan Cozens] made a couple of good plays that shift to generate it to the front of the net. It’s always a pleasure to be in the NHL, and I’m super grateful.”

Ridly Greig made it 2-0 at 14:19. He took a pass up the middle from Michael Amadio, drove to the net and scored through the five-hole.

Cozens pushed the lead to 3-0 at 10:46 of the second, scoring in the slot with a redirection of a shot by Artem Zub.

“It doesn’t feel good right now,” Cozens said. “That was a big game for us, one we needed to get points out of. We can be [mad] about it tonight, but we’ve got to turn the page. We’ve been playing some good hockey, and there’s a lot of games coming up. We need to find a way to just turn the page and not get too down on it.”

Stamkos cut it to 3-1 at 18:34 with a power-play goal. He scored with a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Evangelista.

Jonathan Marchessault pulled the Predators within 3-2 at 8:19 of the third, finishing a give-and-go with Michael Bunting on a 2-on-0 rush.

Thursday marked Marchessault’s third game back after missing 14 with a lower-body injury.

“I’ve definitely been grinding and trying to get healthy and trying to push through,” Marchessault said. “Today was probably the game that I felt just a little better on my feet. I’m trying to get a little bit more physical, and I’m trying to make the right plays at the right time. But it’s been tough to get healthy this year.”

Defenseman Roman Josi became the first player to play 1,000 games with the Predators, for whom he has played all 15 of his NHL seasons. He had an assist in 29:06 of ice time.

“Everything leading up to it, it’s obviously special,” Josi said. “My kids came in for the warmup and reading the lineup. It’s a special day. I’m so grateful for all the love I got all day. It is a special game. It’s not like every other game. But once the puck is in play, you just get back in the rhythm.”

NOTES: Stamkos had the 16th hat trick of his NHL career. The only active players with as many are Alex Ovechkin (33) and David Pastrnak (19). With 235 power-play goals, Stamkos passed Marcel Dionne (234) for sole possession of ninth in NHL history. … Ottawa went 38-for-53 (72 percent) on face-offs. … Halliday was recalled from Belleville of the American Hockey League on Thursday to replace forward David Perron, who will be sidelined 5-7 weeks because of a sports hernia that will require surgery.