Nashville Predators' J.P. Dumont, second left, celebrates his goal against Ottawa Senators' goaltender Pascal Leclaire with teammates Cal O'Reilly, left, and Patric Hornqvist during the first period of their NHL hockey game in Ottawa, October 22, 2009.CHRIS WATTIE
Shea Weber scored his second goal of the game on a power play in overtime Thursday night and the Nashville Predators escaped Ottawa with a wild 6-5 victory over the Senators.
Weber, who also had an assist on the night, ripped a shot between the pads of Senators goaltender Pascal Leclaire with Matt Carkner serving an interference penalty.
The goal put an end to a game that saw the Predators blow a 3-0 lead in the third period and the team's exchange last minute goals. Chris Phillips sent the Scotiabank Place crowd of 18,970 into a frenzy with the tying goal for the Senators with 1.6 seconds left, while Ottawa playing short-handed with Leclaire on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.
Ryan Suter had two goals and an assist and J.P. Dumont scored once and set up four other goals for the Predators (3-5-1), who stopped a six-game winless slide.
Rookie Cody Franson also scored for Nashville. It was the first career goal for Franson, who was playing in just his third NHL game.
Dave Scatchard, a veteran of 637 NHL games who was recalled Tuesday from Milwaukee of the AHL, recorded an assist, his first NHL point since Jan. 7, 2007.
Rookie Alexander Sulzer, also recalled Tuesday, recorded his first career point with an assist.
Pekka Rinne made 27 saves in goal to earn his first victory of the season.
Anton Volchenkov, with a goal and an assist, Chris Campoli, Nick Foligno and Milan Michalek replied for Ottawa (5-2-1), which lost for the first time in three games.
Jason Spezza registered three assists, Daniel Alfredsson added two and Leclaire finished with 31 stops.
The Senators had not played since beating Montreal on Saturday, but had won five of their previous six games and had taken advantage of a schedule that's pitted them mostly against struggling teams so far.
The Predators were one of those teams.
Nashville, playing for the second time in as many nights after a 3-2 loss in Boston on Wednesday, won its first two games to start the season before dropping the next six, with goal scoring being a big problem. The Predators had managed just 11 goals through their first seven contests.
However, they got some help Thursday.
Senators defenceman Alexandre Picard suffered through a nightmare of a game, unintentionally figuring in all three of the Predators' first-period goals.
Suter was credited with giving Nashville the lead on its first shot on Leclaire.
Picard put his stick in front of Suter's shot from the top of the faceoff circle and accidentally redirected it past his own goaltender little more than five minutes in.
The blue-liner's bad luck continued three minutes after that when Franson's point shot was stopped, only for the rebound to bounce from Leclaire's pads into Picard in front of the net and back in for a 2-0 Nashville lead.
At the midway point of the period, Picard whiffed on a breakout pass at his own blue-line, allowing Joel Ward and Dumont to break in on a 2-on-1 chance with Dumont finishing off the play.
Leclaire needed to bail out the Senators on several more occasions after they'd given the puck away in their own zone.
He stopped Patric Hornqvist on another 2-on-1 and made a big glove save on a rebound chance by Weber.
Leclaire's stops allowed the Senators to stage a comeback attempt in the third period.
Suter and Steve Sullivan received minor penalties on the same play early in the frame and Campoli scored his first of the season during the ensuing 5-on-3 advantage.
With the teams playing four men aside less than three minutes later, Foligno fired a wrist shot over Rinne's shoulder to cut the Nashville lead to 3-2.
Michalek then tied it with his team-leading fifth goal of the season on a shot from the faceoff circle.
Weber put Nashville back in the lead on a rebound, before an end-to-end rush by Spezza resulted in Volchenkov's first goal of the season.
Suter appeared to have given Nashville the win when he struck with a minute to go during a 5-on-3 power play, but Phillips redirected a pass from Alfredsson by Rinne to force overtime.
Notes: Right-winger Shean Donovan was a healthy scratch for the Senators, while defenceman Filip Kuba (lower body) and centre Jesse Winchester (knee) were out through injury. Ottawa entertains the Boston Bruins on Saturday. Centre Jason Arnott (upper body), right-winger Jordin Tootoo (groin) and defenceman Dan Hamhuis (upper body) all missed the game. Franson's goal marked the second night a member of the Predators has scored his first NHL goal. Centre Colin Wilson notched his first Wednesday against the Bruins. Nashville travels to Chicago to face the Blackhawks on Saturday.