Mason McTavish scores twice in the Ducks’ overtime loss to the Predators

Tommy Novak and the Nashville Predators needed to go above and beyond for the second night in a row, but were able to cap off a successful road trip with a win.

Novak scored twice, including the game-winner with 1:12 of overtime as the Predators beat the Ducks 5-4 on Sunday night.

Novak, who also had an assist, scored his 12th goal of the season and his third in two nights when he caught Philip Tomasino’s pass and beat John Gibson with a wrist shot.

“It went back and forth a few times with weird rushes. (Tomasino) found me and pretty much had the net open,” said Novak, who scored his first career overtime goal. “It was a good play from him and I’m glad we got the win.”

Novak, who also scored a first-period goal to give the Predators a 2-0 lead, has 16 points in his last 12 games (eight goals, eight assists), including five multipoint attempts.

Nashville earned points in five of the six games on their road trip and is five points behind Colorado for the wild-card final in the Western Conference.

“I give a lot of credit to our guys, it’s been a long journey and a lot of different time zones,” coach John Hynes said. “We knew we had to be able to go deep, obviously playing back-to-back against a rested team. Anaheim made a good push to tie the game. But I thought as the game went on, we went deeper and found a way to win.”

Tomasino, Kiefer Sherwood and Yakov Trenin also scored for Nashville. Roman Josi and Colton Sissons had two assists and Juuse Saros made 33 saves.

Mason McTavish scored twice for Anaheim, which rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits but was unable to get the win. Frank Vatrano and Troy Terry also scored, while Cam Fowler had three assists. Gibson finished with 31 saves.

“At this point in the season and where we are in the standings, I think it would be really easy to see a team mail it out and our guys refuse to do it,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “We get into a game like that against a very desperate team and we still have our foot on the pedal.”

Anaheim trailed 4-2 with three minutes remaining before forcing overtime. Terry scored his 19th with a shot from the right faceoff circle to bring the Ducks within one goal with 2:21 remaining.

McTavish then equalized with 34 seconds remaining with a rebound in front of the net. It was McTavish’s 16th of the season and his eighth point in the last seven games (three goals, five assists).

McTavish started the Ducks rally with 4:16 left in the first with a quick shot from the right faceoff circle and Vatrano tied it 2–2 at 4:46 of the second.

Until the next predators: Take on Detroit on Tuesday to open a three-game homestand.

Until the next ducks: Host the New York Islanders on Wednesday.