Another Nashville Predators comeback was spoiled by a pair of bounces in an overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild, 6-5, on Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena.
The Predators chased a two-goal deficit twice, erased it and forced overtime before eventually falling in the extra period.
"It was one of those games when you know the break's coming," Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said. "I don't know if the focus on both teams was all that high. I think we scored 3 goals in our own net. It's just one of those games."
Matt Boldy scored a hat trick less than 13 minutes into the game, which put the Wild up 3-1.
The hat trick goal came off a play where Nick Blakenberg swatted Boldy's lobbed shot into Michael McCarron. Boldy followed his own rebound and put it in the back of the net.
"It's tough luck," Roman Josi said. "Everybody goes through that throughout the year, and it's just bad luck. Blankie has been unbelievable for us. We all love blanking. He's a fighter. He plays the game hard and he's an amazing person."
Filip Forsberg had the Predators' first conversion of the game on the power play.
Steven Stamkos scored off a one-timer to make it 3-2. The goal moves him past Mario Lemieux for seventh place on the NHL's all-time power-play goals list with 237.
Stamkos (2G, 1A) and Ryan O'Reilly (3A) finished with three points each.
Erik Haula registered the first weird bounce goal of the game. Deflecting a Jonathan Marchessault pass out to the front of the net off of the goalie Filip Gustavsson's back to tie the game at 3-3.
"The resilience and the grittiness of this group. They believe," Brunette said. "Even on the bench, to hear them talk and say 'Hey, we got time, we're gonna get it, I think that's a great sign for our group...I felt like we didn't grab that consistency through the different stretches of the game."
Nashville took its first lead of the game off a goal from Luke Evangelista as he put away a Stamkos rebound to make it 4-3.
Dishin' straight into the goal🪄 pic.twitter.com/frTOqZtZSh
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) February 5, 2026
Minnesota took a late lead in the third off another goal that deflected off of Blakenberg and into the net. The goal was credited to Vladimir Tarasenko.
Roman Josi tied the game with 4:12 left in regulation to force overtime. He finished with two points and now has 11 points in seven games.
In the extra period, the Wild caught the Predators in a change, allowing Krill Kaprizov to spring Matt Boldy and Jared Spuregon on a 2-on-1. Spuregon scored with 46 seconds left to secure the victory.
In the Predators' last four games decided in a five-minute overtime, they are 1-3.
"We've gotta stop playing from behind," Evangelista said. "We're doing a good job of climbing back, but I think if we have some better starts and sustainable 60 (minutes), we'll have some better luck than we did tonight."
if we had a nickle for every time Jared Spurgeon had an OT goal against Nashville in white sweaters... pic.twitter.com/VztGJI7vcz
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) February 5, 2026
Juuse Saros has only one win in his last five starts, making 38 saves on 44 shots in the losing effort.
He was pulled in the second period of the Predators' 6-5 win over the Blues, lost to the Boston Bruins in overtime and lost against the Utah Mammoth. Saros's last win was 4-3 against the New York Islanders on Jan. 31.
The Predators have one more game left before a two-week pause for the Winter Olympics, facing the Washington Capitals 24 hours later in DC.
Picking up a point in the loss, the Predators (59 points) are two points outside of a Wild Card spot, with results from Seattle (61 points) and Los Angeles (60 points) still pending.
"We're definitely battling for life in these past couple of weeks and months, now," Marchessault said. "It's just that time of the year for us. It's catch-up, playoff hockey, so we're just trying to get in and keep moving forward."