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Sullivan comes through in overtime for Nashville

Jan 10, 2007 - 5:58 AM NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Ticker) -- The Nashville Predators got off to a fast start but they needed a strong finish from Steve Sullivan to post an important victory.

Sullivan scored with 1:48 left in overtime to lift the Predators to a 5-4 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.

Nashville (29-11-3) entered the game in first place in the Central Division and five points behind the Ducks in the chase for the top spot in the Western Conference. The Predators inched a point closer thanks to Sullivan and Kimmo Timonen.

Sullivan carried the puck into the Anaheim zone and was near the blue line when he slid a pass to Timonen, who was trailing the play. Timonen circled behind the Anaheim net and found Sullivan alone in the slot, where he fired the puck into a wide open net for the game-winner.

"I changed and Sullivan had the puck," Timonen said. "He made a nice play to me and I actually tried to pass to Arnott. I knew he was going to be in front, somehow it got to Sully and he scored."

"Kimmo came off of the bench, I was running out of options, and he's such a talented player," Sullivan said. "As forwards, we expect our defense are going to be jumping into the play. It is 4-on-4 hockey, you are just trying to jump into holes, lose your man and get a scoring opportunity. I knew (Bryzgalov) was down, so I tried to put it in the other side of the net. Arnie was in the way at the time, he moved, and it went in."

The Ducks, who have lost five of their last six, missed out on an opportunity to become the first team in the Western Conference to reach 30 victories. At 29-9-7, Anaheim has 65 points, four more than Nashville.

"We're trying to chase them in the conference, they're ahead of us in first place, and they are the best team in the NHL," Sullivan said. "For us to have such a great first period and such a bad second, there were some good things and some bad things we did tonight, we'll take all the good out of it and continue on."

Timonen also scored and Paul Kariya added a goal and an assist for Nashville, which led 3-1 after the first period. David Legwand and J.P. Dumont each added a goal for the Predators.

"The first period, we played outstanding. It might have been our best period of the year," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "I thought we controlled things, we didn't give up anything."

Dustin Penner had a goal and an assist, Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf each tallied and Corey Perry had two assists for Anaheim, which scored three times in the second period to tie the game at 4-4.

"We can't afford to have these kind of starts," Selanne said. "When you put yourself behind the eight-ball right away, it is tough to come back in this league. In my mind, we played really poorly tonight. I don't think that we deserved to win tonight. There are 82 games, and you have to find your A every night. If you don't do that you are in trouble. That's what makes the difference in some players and some teams."

The game also marked the return of Nashville goaltender Tomas Vokoun, who had missed the last 21 games with a torn ligament in his left hand. He gave up a goal on the first shot he faced but finished with 27 saves.

"It obviously wasn't one of my greatest games, but thankfully we pulled it out at the end," Vokoun said. "It wasn't pretty, but we got two points, at least I can stay positive from that. It is not going to be easy to get back, but that is what the situation is. I'm going to try and get better as I go along."