With Nashville trailing 3-2 after surrendering three straight goals, Predators coach Barry Trotz sensed the game slipping away and called a timeout.
The strategy stopped the Avalanche's momentum and kept the Predators' winning streak alive.
David Legwand scored at 3:07 of overtime to give Nashville a 4-3 victory over Colorado on Wednesday night, the Predators' seventh straight victory.
J.P. Dumont, Marcel Goc and Shea Weber also scored, and Pekka Rinna made 19 saves in Nashville's 11th victory in its last 13 games.
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The streak was in jeopardy when Nashville blew a 2-0 lead, but the timeout allowed the players to regroup.
"We just stopped skating when we had the lead," Trotz said.
The Predators responded with a power-play goal from Shea Weber 3:32 later to tie it, and Legwand struck with his sixth career overtime goal.
"I just threw it toward the net," Legwand said. "We got the puck off to the side of the net and we kept the pressure on them."
Legwand didn't react right away because he didn't know the puck went in the net.
"When (Jason Arnott's) hands went up and I saw it," Legwand said. "I saw his hands go up so I figured it was in the net."
Milan Hejduk had a goal and an assist, rookie defenseman Ryan Wilson, Marek Svatos added goals, and Craig Anderson stopped 23 shots for Colorado. The Avalanche have lost three of their last four.
Colorado earned a point in the loss, but early on it looked as if Nashville would run away with a win.
Nashville got on the board when the Avalanche couldn't clear the puck out of their zone during a penalty kill. Arnott got the puck at the right circle, sent a pass through the defense and Dumont redirected it past Anderson 3 minutes into the game.
Goc made it 2-0 when he one-timed a pass from Martin Erat with 9:08 left in the first period.
"We need to have a better start, but we got ourselves back into the game," Colorado coach Joe Sacco said.
The Avalanche cut the lead in half when Wilson skated into the Nashville end and beat Rinne with a wrister at the 3:39 mark of the second period.
"I saw a spot where I could jump into the play, and Hejduk hit me with a good pass," said Wilson, who has two goals in 14 games. "I saw the hole and dropped a shot in."
Colorado tied it when Hejduk scored a power-play goal with 8:48 left in the frame, his team-leading 11th goal of the season.
Three minutes later, Svatos scored his sixth goal to give the Avalanche a 3-2 lead.
"They had the momentum going at that point they scored three goals in a row, and they had some other chances," said Rinna, who tied the franchise goalie record with his seventh straight victory. "Then we had that big power play. That was a huge goal for us. We had some good chances and eventually Leggy scored a big goal for us."
Anderson briefly preserved the lead when he made a save on Joel Ward's breakaway chance, but Weber tied it with a power-play goal with 1:53 left in the period.
"Power plays go with winning games," Weber said. "It's definitely a difference maker."
Notes
Nashville's win streak is one shy of the franchise record set Oct. 5-25, 2005. ... Avalanche D Adam Foote (jaw) missed his fourth straight game. ... Colorado has outshot its opponents four times in 25 games. ... Nashville is 12-0-0 when scoring a power-play goal.
