Wild cement win over Preds on Radivojevic's late goal

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Game Information

Arena: Sommet Center Location: Nashville, Tennessee

Referees: MikeHasenfratz, KellySutherland Linesmen: ScottDriscoll, DonHenderson

Attendance: 12,639 (73.9% full)

Team Stat Comparison
220	Goals	227
210	Goals Against	224
64	Power Play Goals	53
49	Power Play Goals Allowed	49
3	Shorthanded Goals	7
10	Shorthanded Goals Allowed	10
1098	Penalty Minutes	1027
13	Average Penalty Minutes	13

Scoring Summary
1ST PERIOD			MIN	NSH
11:08		Aaron Voros Assists: Brent Burns, Matt Foy	1	0
12:49		Martin Erat (Power Play) Assists: Ville Koistinen, Ryan Suter	1	1
13:12		Martin Gelinas Assists: Greg Zanon	1	2
14:16		Matt Foy Assists: James Sheppard	2	2
2ND PERIOD			MIN	NSH
18:49		Marian Gaborik Assists: Mark Parrish, Dominic Moore	3	2
3RD PERIOD			MIN	NSH
10:16		Vernon Fiddler Assists: Alexander Radulov	3	3
18:07		Branko Radivojevic Assists: Dominic Moore, Stephane Veilleux	4	3

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Nashville Predators' failure to control the Minnesota Wild in the final two minutes could come back to haunt them.

Branko Radivojevic scored the go-ahead goal with 1:53 remaining, leading the Wild to a 4-3 victory Saturday night.

"We had a tie and we lost it," Predators coach Barry Trotz said. "It's just painful because you don't know if that point is going to be a meaningful point at the end of the season. Somewhere along the line, if we are working hard and doing the right things those points will even out."

Aaron Voros, Matt Foy and Marian Gaborik also scored for Minnesota, which took a 3-2 lead into the third period.

Vernon Fiddler scored the tying goal for the Predators in third period at 10:16 when Alexander Radulov found him low in the slot and Fiddler shot the puck between Niklas Backstrom's legs.

Radivojevic scored what proved to be the winning goal when he beat Chris Mason high over his left shoulder on a 3-on-2 breakaway at 18:07.

"It feels really good to get that winning goal, especially after I was a healthy scratch the previous game," Radivojevic said. "The 21 games before I had just one goal. It was tough. When you get benched, and you have to sit up in the stands, you think a lot about the game."

Martin Erat and Martin Gelinas also scored for Nashville.

The first period was an offensive one for both teams as the Predators scored twice on 15 shots, while the Wild scored a pair on 11 shots.

The Wild opened the scoring at the 11:08 mark when Brent Burns blasted a shot from a few feet inside the blue line that was deflected into the net by Voros.

The Predators answered at 12:49 on the power play as Erat beat Backstrom to the left side of the net when he fired a one-timer from the top edge of the right circle. Nashville took the lead just 23 seconds later. Greg Zanon passed to Gelinas as he skated across in front of the crease, and Gelinas backhanded a shot into the right side of the net as Backstrom was stretched out on the ice to the left side.

The Wild tied it at 14:16 when James Sheppard passed the puck to Foy who was a few feet in front of the net. Foy's one-timer went under Mason's outstretched right leg pad.

The Predators held a 15-6 advantage in shots on goal in the second period, but the Wild scored the lone goal. Gaborik gave the Wild a 3-2 lead when he skated behind Mason from the left side and scored off a pass from Mark Parrish.

The Predators had a season-high 43 shots on goal, while Minnesota finished with 25.

"We knew Minnesota would play a solid defensive game since they are known for that," Nashville's Shea Weber said. "We had a lot of chances, but we gave them too many chances, and obviously, they capitalized."

Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire had challenged the Wild to play on a higher level.

"We've been having some tough luck lately," Lemaire said. "Even in this game, it looked like we were going to go back to the old games we had played. The guys kept working, though. All the guys played hard. That's probably the reason we scored the last goal and won the game."

Game notes
Gaborik has scored seven goals in his last eight games. The Wild are 9-2-1 when scoring more than two goals. The Predators are 2-9-1 when allowing the first goal. Erat has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his last six games.