DENVER (Ticker) -- Defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Marek Zidlicky scored power-play goals as the Nashville Predators held on for 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche.
The Predators continued their resurgence on the power play and earned a split of their four-game road trip. Nashville began this season with five goals in its first 44 power-play opportunities, but is 13-for-57 with the man advantage in its last 11 games.
Nashville had two power-play goals in a contest for the seventh time in 12 games and the big effort against the Avalanche helped them improve to 5-2-0 in their last seven contests.
"The special teams play a big part in every game," Timonen said. "The last couple of games, the power play has been working and it got us a win today."
Timonen, who leads the club in ice time, got Nashville on the board just 63 seconds into the contest with his second goal in three games. He beat rookie goaltender Phillipe Sauve with a wrist shot from the right corner.
The Predators doubled their lead at 5:03 of the second as Zidlicky netted his sixth of the year. But they went nearly 9 1/2 minutes without a shot in the third and Colorado made it a one-goal game when Milan Hejduk netted his 12th of the season less than three minutes into the period.
Nashville regained its two-goal lead as Rem Murray stuffed in a rebound for a shorthanded tally with 6:15 remaining. But the Predators, who were outshot 18-4 over the final 20 minutes, had to hold on for its third straight one-goal victory when Joe Sakic scored with the extra attacker.
"When they throw it around, they've got a pretty potent lineup," Predators coach Barry Trotz said. "(I was) a bit nervous but we hung on and did a great job."
"They're a good team obviously," Nashville goaltender Tomas Vokoun added. "They've got a lot of highly skilled players. We said we've got to make it tough on them. We said we've got to battle and make it tough on their top guys. We did and that's why we won the hockey game."
Colorado suffered consecutive regulation losses for the second time this season and saw its scoreless streak go over 124 minutes before Hejduk put a wrister past Vokoun.
Vokoun, who has played in all but two of Nashville's first 20 games, faced just 18 shots in the opening 40 minutes before Colorado tried to make another third-period comeback. He made a pair of key saves on Sakic and caught a break when Alex Tanguay's shot dribbled between his pads but rang off the goalpost.
Playing without injured stars Peter Forsberg (groin) and Paul Kariya (wrist), the Avalanche went 0-for-5 on the power play and gave up two power-play goals for just the third time this season.
"It was frustrating," Colorado defenseman Adam Foote said. "(Vokoun) stoned us on a few plays. He made some big saves and maybe mentally it would have been a big momentum changer if we got one on them early on."
"I don't know what we were waiting for," Avalanche winger Teemu Selanne said. "For 40 minutes we were awful. There's only one team out there. That team didn't beat us, we beat ourselves."
