Nashville, Tenn. — The Nashville Predators don't mind waiting until the third period to get their offense going.
For the second straight home game, the Predators rallied late to force overtime.
Nashville goaltender Mike Dunham kicks out a shot by Colorado right winger Dan Hinote in the third period. The Predators and Avalanche skated to a 4-4 tie Tuesday in Nashville, Tenn.
Cliff Ronning scored twice in the third, just 1:21 apart, lifting the Predators into a 4-4 tie with the Colorado Avalanche.
On Saturday, the Predators tied Detroit in the final five minutes of regulation and won 3-2 in overtime.
"It shows a lot of character on our part," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "Detroit was 21-0-2 when leading after two periods and Colorado was a perfect 18-0 when leading after two periods. The guys really battled hard."
Ronning tied it 3-3 at 11:23, and then tied it again at 4 after Eric Messier gave the Avalanche the lead back 49 seconds earlier.
"When Cliff gets determined, he can really make things happen," Trotz said. "He knew we needed some points and that he had to crank it up and that is what he did."
Colorado's Martin Skoula scored first when he skated through the slot unguarded, catching Nashville goalie Mike Dunham out of position as he drove home a pass from Brian Willsie at 6:48 on the power play.
Nashville's Greg Johnson, in position in front of the net, pushed the rebound of a shot past Patrick Roy at 10:22.
Chris Drury gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead when he turned in front of the net and fired a shot past Dunham at 12:24.
Mark Mowers, battling traffic in front of the net, scored the tying goal when he put back the rebound of a blue line shot from Greg Classen that bounced off Roy's leg pads at 16:39.
Colorado Coach Bob Hartley, who has one of the NHL's top defensive teams, didn't mind settling for a tie.
"We can look at it different ways," Hartley said. "We score four goals on the road and we don't get a win. We allow four goals on the road and we don't get beat.
"Obviously, we had the lead and we lost it. Nashville played very well offensively and we played very well offensively. We had some great chances. They had some great chances. That is the way it goes. This was a like a game of hockey played on a pond."
Capitals 3, Islanders 2
Washington Andrei Nikolishin and Jeff Halpern scored on back-to-back shots at the end of the second period for Washington. Sergei Gonchar also scored for the Capitals, who won for only the second time in seven games. Jason Blake and Michael Peca scored for the Islanders, who have allowed 17 goals in their last four games. New York played without defensemen Radek Martinek and Roman Hamrlik, will are both scheduled for knee surgery Wednesday. Martinek is out the remainder of the season, while Hamrlik is expected to miss 3-to-6 weeks.
Devils 2, Blues 1
East Rutherford, N.J. Sergei Brylin and Patrik Elias scored as New Jersey won two straight for the first time since Dec. 5-8. Doug Weight scored for the Blues, 2-7-3-2 on the road since the start of November. New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur lost the chance at a shutout when Weight scored at 7:41 of the third. Weight took a long lead pass from Chris Pronger and unloaded a hard shot from the left circle to beat Brodeur.
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