NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Craig Smith and Jani Hakanpaa scored in the final 13 seconds of the third period, rallying the Dallas Stars to a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday.
Evgenii Dadonov also scored in the third period as Dallas improved to 5-0-1 in its past six games. Scott Wedgewood made 19 saves for the Stars.
“You saw what happened in the end,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “That’s the great part about hockey; you’re never out of it till the buzzer goes.”
Michael McCarron and Colton Sissons scored for Nashville in the second period. Juuse Saros made 31 stops for the Predators, who cooled off a bit, dropping to 8-3 in their past 11 games.
“We were kind of hanging on down the stretch,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said on the Predators postgame show on Bally Sports. “It’s disappointing, especially giving up that last one, that one hurt. But, a learning experience. I thought we did some things late that we can take and go on.”
With Wedgewood pulled for an extra attacker and Dallas down 2-1, Smith notched his third of the season during a goalmouth scramble with 13 seconds left.
Hakanpaa recorded the winner with just four seconds remaining. It was his first goal of the season, capping off a rally that DeBoer summed up simply as “resiliency.”
“We talked at the end of the second period, and we thought there were still points to be had tonight, if we could play a good 20 minutes,” DeBoer said. “We had some frustration creeping in in the second period. We reset, we came out in the third and gave ourselves a chance.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.