Predators have 'Wild' battle

Darby Hendrickson posted two goals and an assist and two former Nashville Predators came back to bite their old club with goals as the Minnesota Wild defeated Nashville, 4-2 on Wednesday night at the Gaylord Entertainment Center.

The win was Minnesota's (4-2-3-1) first-ever against the Predators (3-7-2-0), and these two clubs will go at it again tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. at Minnesota's XCel Energy Center. That contest will be televised on FOX Sports Net and broadcast on Supertalk 99.7-WTN radio.

Defenseman Kimmo Timonen put the Predators on the board first with a power play goal at 7:03 of the first period. Cliff Ronning fired a shot from the right face-off circle which Minnesota netminder Dwayne Roloson trapped. Patric Kjellberg nudged the puck loose, and Timonen came in from the back side to punch it home and give Nashville a 1-0 lead.

Minnesota stormed back with two tallies in the second period. Hendrickson scored the first of his two at 3:33, and former Predator Andrew Brunette gave the Wild a lead they would not relinquish at 17:41.

Former Pred Sergei Krivokrasov gave the Wild a 3-1 lead with his first of the season at 8:17 of the third period. At 15:33 of the third, Krivokrasov was assessed a five-minute kneeing major and a game misconduct after getting tangled up with Nashville's Denis Arkhipov. Arkhipov left the game with a bruised hip and is listed as day-to-day.

Rookie Martin Erat's first career NHL goal cut the Minnesota lead to 3-2 at 17:35 of the third. David Legwand and Vladimir Orszagh earned assists on the play. Hendrickson added an empty net goal with five seconds remaining to seal the win for the Wild.

Nashville finished the evening 2-6 on the power play, while the Wild ended 0-5 with a shorthanded (empty net) tally.

Mike Dunham stopped 19 of 22 shots for the Predators while Roloson made 27 saves on 29 shots for Minnesota.

Attendance was 12,522.

Nashville at Minnesota

TV - FOXSN