Anaheim’s Troy Terry drew a high-sticking penalty on Nashville and scored tiebreaking goal on the ensuing power play with 2:54 left, lifting the visiting Ducks to a 5-4 win against the Predators in the regular-season finale for both teams on Thursday.
Cutter Gauthier, Jackson LaCombe, Alex Killorn and Tristan Luneau also scored, Mikael Granlund notched three assists, John Carlson produced two assists and Ville Husso made 17 saves for the Ducks, who will enter the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
With the win, Anaheim (43-33-6, 92 points) remained in the hunt to finish second or third in the Pacific Division, depending on the resulted produced later Thursday by the Edmonton Oilers and the Los Angeles Kings.
Steven Stamkos had two goals and an assist, Filip Forsberg also scored twice, Luke Evangelista and Ryan Ufko registered two assists each and Juuse Saros stopped 35 shots for the Predators (38-34-10, 86 points), who lost three of their last four. Nashville was previously eliminated from postseason contention.
Nashville forward Tyson Jost was called for a four-minute high-sticking penalty on Terry with 3:57 to go, and Terry scored a rebound during the first half of the penalty to give the Ducks a 5-4 lead.
Gauthier recorded his team-leading 41st goal of the season with a one-timer from the right faceoff circle off a rush to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 1:36 of the first period.
Stamkos scored with a wrist shot from the right circle to tie it 1-1 at 10:09 of the first.
Nashville moved ahead 2-1 at 15:55 of the opening frame when Forsberg redirected the puck into the net on a power play.
LaCombe scored his 10th goal of the season with a wrist shot through traffic from just inside the blue line to tie it 2-2 with 21 seconds left in the first.
Anaheim moved back ahead 3-2 at 4:33 of the second period when Killorn scored with a one-timer from just above the right circle.
Forsberg tallied again on a snap shot from between the hashmarks to tie it 3-3 at 14:37 of the second, and Stamkos moved Nashville back ahead 4-3 less than a minute later when he scored off a cross-ice feed from Ryan O’Reilly while on a power play.
The Ducks tied it 4-4 before the end of the second period when Luneau followed up a play and scored the rebound at 4:17. Luneau was playing his first game of the season for the Ducks after he was recalled from San Diego of the AHL on Wednesday.
