PHILADELPHIA — Matt Duchene scored 34 seconds into overtime, Juuse Saros made 23 saves and the Nashville Predators defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 but lost top scorer Filip Forsberg in the first period after he took a hard late hit.
Nino Niederreiter scored in regulation for the Predators, who entered play four points out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Kevin Hayes scored for Philadelphia, which dropped to 2-10 past regulation this season. Carter Hart made 23 saves but couldn´t stop Nashville´s lone shot in the extra session.
“We´re in a tight playoff race and our mindset is we have to come in and battle and compete,” Predators coach John Hynes said.
“Both teams have some physical players, and that´s how the game played out. There´s a certain intensity level and focus level that we need to be able to play with here coming down the stretch.”
The Calgary Flames, meanwhile, scored four times in just over five minutes in their 7-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.
Dillon Dube had a goal and three assists for Calgary and Tyler Toffoli had two goals and an assist. Jakob Pelletier, Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri and Dennis Gilbert also scored, while Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves.
Tage Thompson and Casey Mittelstadt scored for the Sabres, and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 33 saves.
After falling behind 2-0, the Flames took control with a dominant second-period surge that saw them score four times between 2:17 and 7:39.
Pelletier, the 26th overall pick in the 2019 draft, began Calgary´s comeback with his first career goal. Backlund evened the score 20 seconds later from the right ciricle on a poor moment by Luukkonen.
Gilbert, a Buffalo native, scored his first goal of the season and the second of his career 4:04 into the second by collecting a drop pass and beating Luukkonen with a low slap shot.
Elsewhere, John Tavares scored twice and Ilya Samsonov stopped 30 shots for his third shutout of the season, leading the Toronto Maple Leafs over the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 to snap a three-game road losing streak.
Pierre Engvall also scored and Mitch Marner added two assists for Toronto, which remains in second place in the Atlantic Division with 72 points – 11 points behind first-place Boston.
“I thought we played a pretty solid and patient game,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said according to AP. “We didn´t give up a lot and extended our lead in the third period, which is what you want to do.”
Joonas Korpisalo had 41 saves for Columbus, which has lost four straight and remains last in the NHL standings.
Tavares put Toronto up at 5:45 of the first period with his team-lead-tying 10th power-play goal of the season, slipped between Korpisalo´s pads.
“We did some good things, got involved,” Tavares said. “I think after the first period we controlled the neutral zone.”
Korpisalo kept Columbus in the game through two periods, stopping 27 shots, before Toronto took charge in the third period, burying goals 48 seconds apart from Engvall and Tavares for a 3-0 lead at 8:38.
“(We) were a shot away for a long time,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “We actually had a couple of decent looks there at the end of the second and early in the third, and then they get those two quick ones on us.”
