Predators pounce on Ducks, 3-2

James Neal and Miikka Salomaki gave Nashville the lead, and Pekka Rinne stopped 38 shots to lead the Predators over the Ducks, 3-2, Tuesday night.

Shea Weber also scored as Nashville won for the third time in four games.

Rickard Rakell and Mike Santorelli scored for the Ducks, who have lost four of their last five games. Frederik Andersen gave up three goals on 10 shots and was replaced in the second period by Anton Khudobin, who stopped all 11 shots he faced.

Weber scored the game’s first goal at 9 minutes 33 seconds of the opening period.

With the Predators on a power play, Roman Josi sent a pass from the right point to Weber, who was standing above the left circle. Weber beat Andersen with a one-timer.

Rakell tied the score 1:14 later.

Nashville regained the lead for good with 6:47 left in the first period when Neal carried the puck from inside the Nashville zone and sent a soft wrist shot on net from outside the blue line that knuckled and squeezed between Andersen’s pads.

Salomaki scored his first goal this season at 6:13 of the second period as he redirected Mattias Ekholm’s shot from the left point to make it 3-1.

That goal was the end of the game for Andersen.

“I didn’t think he was very sharp, it’s as simple as that,” Coach Bruce Boudreau said. “The body language on his third goal wasn’t very good at all. We were still in the position I thought to win the game. We were playing like we could win the game.”

Rinne faced his toughest test in the second, stopping all 19 shots he faced in the period. Three of the saves came in a span of 1:10 midway through the period.

Carl Hagelin had a partial breakaway and pulled up for a slap shot from the low slot that Rinne denied at 9:07. The three-time Vezina Trophy finalist denied Hagelin three seconds later with a diving stop.

“Key moment of the game for sure,” Rinne said. “They had a couple of breakaways in the second period and we were able to keep them out. That was a big sequence.”

At 10:17, Rinne stopped Andrew Cogliano’s wrist shot on a short-handed attempt.

“At the end of the day, we have to get pucks in,” Cogliano said. “Rinne played good, we give him that, but we lost the game, so it doesn’t really matter.”

Santorelli made it 3-2 at 5:33 of the third, when the former Predator put home the rebound of a shot by Kevin Bieksa.