Stamkos scores twice in 3rd, Predators rally from 4 goals down to stun Blues

NASHVILLE -- Steven Stamkos scored twice in the third period, and the Nashville Predators rallied from a four-goal deficit to stun the St. Louis Blues, 6-5 at Bridgestone Arena on Monday.

Stamkos tied the game 5-5 at 7:14 of the third period, skating behind the net for a wraparound that went in off the skate of St. Louis defenseman Colton Parayko. He then scored the go-ahead goal at 10:23, knocking in the rebound of Brady Skjei's shot at the right post.

“It’s one of those games where everything is going the wrong way, but that’s why sports are so amazing, because you never know what is going to happen,” Stamkos said. “You either pack it in as a group or you say screw it and go out there and try to make a difference. Guys made a difference tonight, and it wasn’t the same guys all night. It was different guys.”

Ryan O'Reilly also scored two goals, and Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist for the Predators (26-23-6), who have won two in a row and extended their point streak to four (2-0-2). Roman Josi had four assists and Luke Evangelista had three assists.

Juuse Saros allowed five goals on 21 shots before being replaced in the second period by Justus Annunen, who stopped all 14 shots he faced.

Pavel Buchnevich had two goals and an assist, and Philip Broberg and Jake Neighbours each had a goal and an assist for the Blues (20-27-9), who have lost seven of their past eight (1-6-1). Jordan Kyrou had three assists, and Joel Hofer made 22 saves.

“Once they scored their second goal, I didn’t feel the same amount of confidence with our players with the puck,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “We started turning pucks over that I thought we had time and space, and then it just started to snowball. We got 5-3 to the end of the second, we had a chance to regroup, and then after we regrouped in between periods, they were rolling. They were feeling it, and we didn’t win enough battles to be able to gain lines and protect the lead that we had.”

Michael McCarron started the comeback for Nashville by scoring on a redirection to make it 5-2 at 11:35 of the second period.

Forsberg cut it to 5-3 at 13:49, scoring with a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Hofer above his glove.

O'Reilly got the Predators to within 5-4 at 2:02 of the third period. Justin Barron's shot was deflected and then hit O'Reilly's skate, and the forward dove to knock in the loose puck from the edge of the crease.

“There’s certain guys that are going and they’re grabbing momentum for our group, and you can tell it’s on its way,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “You just kind of keep riding it a little bit. I think we taxed a lot of guys today, but these are crucial points. This is a crucial week for us.”

Neighbours gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 4:53 of the first period on a redirection from the slot.

O’Reilly scored on the power play to tie it 1-1 at 9:16. He reached out with one hand on his stick to redirect a pass from Forsberg.

“I hate to say it, but we kind of have a trend that we kind of do is start slow and then get into it,” O’Reilly said. “Going forward, we have to find a way to be a little more consistent with that. But you feel it throughout the group. It’s a couple of good shifts together and you just feel momentum.”

Buchnevich gave the Blues a 2-1 lead on a power play at 14:24, scoring on a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Neighbours. He then made it 3-1 just 45 seconds into the second period, scoring from the slot after a clearing attempt from Josi went off of Kyrou.

Broberg pushed it to 4-1 at 3:25 when his shot from the point bounced off the end boards and into the net off the back of Saros' left leg.

Parayko scored with a wrist shot on the rush off a pass from Jimmy Snuggerud to make it 5-1 at 3:55. Saros was pulled after the goal.

“Just learn from that as best as possible," Parayko said. “It’s frustrating, obviously, to lose games, but you’ve got to learn from that and make sure that moving forward we take care of those games.”

NOTES: Nashville became the fourth team to record a four-goal comeback this season. ... Josi had his fourth career four-assist game, tying Victor Hedman, Morgan Rielly and Quinn Hughes for the most by an active defenseman. ... Stamkos passed Dino Ciccarelli for 20th in NHL history with 609 career goals. He is one behind Bobby Hull (610) for 19th. ... Snuggerud extended his point streak to five games (two goals, five assists). It's the third-longest by a rookie this season, behind Beckett Sennecke (eight games) and the Matthew Schaefer (six games).