EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- Andreas Johansson and David Legwand
quickly restored the chemistry they've shown in the past.
Johansson and Legwand each had three points and the Nashville
Predators hung on for a 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers on
Saturday night.
Johansson doubled his goal total for the season, scoring twice
and adding an assist against Oilers goalie Tommy Salo.
"Tommy Salo always talks about how I never score on him, so it
was nice to get that over with," Johansson said of his Swedish
countryman.
Legwand scored once and assisted on Johansson's goals. The
linemates had a goal each on Nashville's first three shots of the
game.
"It was fun," Legwand said. "Every time we get out there, we
like to play a puck-control game and hang on to it as along as we
can. The goals we created, I think we did that."
Tomas Vokoun was sharp for the Predators, stopping 22 shots for
his NHL-leading 22nd win, tying him with Ed Belfour of Toronto and
Marty Turco of Dallas.
"We had the game in our hands and all we had to do was be
smart, and we just shot ourselves in the foot," Vokoun said. "At
the end, we won. That's what counts."
Denis Arkhipov scored on the power play and Scott Walker chipped
in two assists for Nashville, which entered in seventh place in the
Western Conference. The Oilers, nine points behind the Predators,
have lost two straight at home since coming within a game of
reaching .500.
Edmonton rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the third. Radek Dvorak
scored a power-play goal at 2:13, then Ethan Moreau made it 4-2
just 24 seconds later.
"We're a young team and when we get scored on, we are sometimes
fragile," Vokoun said.
Edmonton added a third unanswered goal from Raffi Torres with 55
seconds remaining but could not get even.
"It's a tough game to break down because we came out like we
wanted to," Moreau said. "We had a lot of great chances. There's
a couple missed assignments and that's unacceptable 50 games into
the season.
"It's almost insurmountable when you get down by that much,
against any team in the league."
Predators forward Jordin Tootoo had a number of supporters in
attendance, including over 300 people from his home territory
Nunavut.
Johansson opened the scoring when he one-timed the rebound from
Mark Easton's point shot behind Salo at 5:45 of the first period.
Legwand extended the lead to 2-0 just 3:39 later when he also
beat Salo with a one-timer, this time on a low wobbler from the
high slot.
The two combined on a great effort early in the second period
when they took advantage of an odd-man rush, passing it back and
forth before Johansson eventually banged in his own rebound.
Game notes
The Predators had four power-play opportunities in the
first period, and Edmonton had three but neither scored. ... Ryan
Smyth assisted on Dvorak's goal for his 400th NHL point, all with
Edmonton. ... Ty Conklin replaced Salo for the third.