Roy's lone shootout goal lifts Predators to win over Bruins
Pekka Rinne powered the Nashville Predators to another impressive win.
Rinne shut out Boston in the shootout and Derek Roy scored the only goal of the tiebreaker, lifting the Predators to a 3-2 victory over the Bruins on Tuesday night.
Mike Fisher and Mike Ribeiro scored in regulation for Nashville, which has won three of four.
Predators general manager David Poile recorded his 1,171st win, moving into second on the NHL's career list behind New York Rangers GM Glen Sather.
Milan Lucic and Reilly Smith scored for Boston. The Bruins have lost three in a row and six of seven.
"We played a pretty decent game tonight against a team that has been pretty good," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "It's pretty obvious that their goaltender has been standing tall for these guys."
In the tiebreaker, Roy beat Tuukka Rask with a backhand after nearly losing the puck on his rush.
"He came in slow, lost the puck, and recovered," Rask said. "It's the shootout, sometimes he scores, sometimes he doesn't."
In recording his league-leading 20th victory of the season, Rinne made 33 saves in regulation and overtime and denied all three attempts in the shootout. He has allowed just two shootout goals in 19 opponent attempts this season.
"He was phenomenal tonight," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "There were so many good saves and so many big saves, timely saves when we needed it. He's done tonight what he's been doing all year, which is giving us an opportunity to win hockey games."
In overtime, Rinne turned aside back-to-back, point-blank chances from Lucic and Carl Soderberg.
"It's fun, I like to play that kind of game when there's something happening all the time," Rinne said. "Coming out of it on top, that's the biggest thing."
Lucic scored the game's first goal at 4:04 of the second period, capping off a scramble in front of the net.
Rinne stopped Chris Kelly's initial shot and a rebound attempt from Lucic. The puck came right back to Lucic on the left side, where he beat Rinne for his sixth goal of the season.
Fisher tied it at 19:30 of the second.
With Nashville on a power play, Shea Weber's wrist shot from the top of the right circle deflected off Fisher and over Rask's shoulder. It was just the second home power-play goal for the Predators this season, and first since the opener.
"We've got to keep shooting," Fisher said. "Guys did a good job of getting pucks through. We've got to get hungry and get some more."
Rask made 38 saves.
Ribeiro and Smith traded goals early in the third.
Ribeiro put Nashville in front at 1:31 with a slap shot from the lower part of the right circle off a pass from James Neal, but Smith tied it less than two minutes later when he slipped the puck between Rinne's pads on a 2-on-1 rush.
NOTES: Four of Lucic's six goals have come against Western Conference opponents. ... Nashville D Anton Volchenkov left in the first period after blocking a shot. The team said he sustained a lower-body injury. ... Smith has five points in five career games against Nashville.
