Preds get by slumping 'Hawks in shootout
Cal O'Reilly scored the only goal in a shootout to give the Nashville Predators a 4-3 victory over the slumping Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.
Nashville won its second consecutive game, both of which required extra time. Prior to Thursday night's shootout victory in St. Louis, the Predators had lost five straight.
Chicago has dropped three in a row.
In the shootout, O'Reilly beat Chicago goalie Marty Turco with a wrist shot on Nashville's first attempt.
All three Predators goals in regulation came from defensemen: Shane O'Brien, Shea Weber and Cody Franson.
Jack Skille scored twice for Chicago and Viktor Stalberg had the other Blackhawks goal.
The Blackhawks made their first appearance in Nashville since closing out their Western Conference quarterfinal in six games last April.
Skille entered without a goal in 17 games this season, but ended that drought with less than a minute remaining in the opening period.
At 19:07 of the first, Brian Campbell stickhandled through traffic and found Skille in the slot, where he snapped a wrist shot by the glove of Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne just inside the right post.
O'Brien and Weber scored goals less than 3 minutes apart in the second to give Nashville a brief 2-1 lead. Stalberg tied it 92 seconds after Weber's power-play goal at 5:19.
Skille's second of the game came at 9:10 of the second. Jake Dowell had the puck on the right side and slipped a pass to Skille in the slot. He carried the puck just inside the left faceoff circle and beat Rinne with a wrist shot high to the glove side.
Franson's goal at 10:23 of the third tied it at 3.
Skille, the seventh overall pick in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, had never scored more than once in a game in his first 47 NHL contests.
