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NASHVILLE , Tenn. (AP) — Pekke Rinne and Viktor Arvidsson gave Nashville more of the same Thursday night. A little extra from newcomer Brian Boyle helped make the difference.Rinne stopped 34 shots, Arvidsson and Boyle scored, and the Nashville Predators beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 to snap a three-game skid.Rinne was sharp, especially in the second period, when he turned aside all 21 Montreal shots he faced.“I thought Pekka was outstanding,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said.Tomas Tatar scored and Carey Price made 35 saves for Montreal, which has lost consecutive games for the first time since early January.“I thought it was a pretty entertaining game going both ways,” Price said. “I thought we held our own for sure. We don’t like the result, but I thought we played a good team well.”With the game tied at a 1 midway through the third, Boyle and Arvidsson struck 2:24 apart to pull away.Boyle’s goal, his first since being traded to the Predators, came at 8:36 on a slap shot from the high slot. Former Canadien P.K. Subban set Boyle up with a nice pass from the right side.“We’ve got an active ‘D,’ so you’ve got to be able to cover,” Boyle said. “I had some probably higher quality chances earlier, but whatever, I’m excited to win. It’s a really good feeling. It’s great to do it at home , too.”Arvidsson had a tap-in at 11:00 thanks to a cross-crease pass from linemate Ryan Johansen. Arvidsson’s 26 goals lead the Predators.Johansen has points in a season-high six consecutive games.Earlier in the game, Price denied Arvidsson on a clear breakaway with 2:40 remaining in the second.Ryan Hartman scored the game’s first goal at 9:49 of the second period. Just outside the Montreal blue line, Hartman knocked down Jonathan Drouin’s clearing attempt and sent a pass to Craig Smith, whose shot attempt was denied by Price. Hartman swooped through the slot and buried the rebound, which was in the air when he connected.The goal was Hartman’s 10th of the season and first since Dec. 13, snapping a 27-game skid. As he skated toward the Nashville bench for celebratory fist bumps, Hartman mimicked removing a monkey off his back and tossing it into the crowd.“It was a long time, longest streak I’ve ever had at any level, so it was a good feeling,” Ryan Hartman said.Montreal played its first game since Saturday, and the rust showed early being outshot 16-8 in the first.“Our first period made it look like we hadn’t played in four or five days,” Montreal coach Claude Julien said. “We weren’t very good. In the second period, we seemed to get our legs going. We seemed to find our game, but we didn’t capitalize on our chances. We had lots of them and that’s what probably hurt us in the end.”Tatar evened the game at 1 at 5:26 of the third. The Canadiens entered the Nashville zone on the right side on a 3-on-2 rush. Tatar beat Rinne from the slot off of an impressive pass from Andrew Shaw.Notes: Nashville is 25-3-1 when scoring first this season. … Predators LW Kevin Fiala played his 200th career NHL game. … Nashville D Mattias Ekholm missed the game due to an illness. … Canadiens D Shea Weber, a former Predator captain, played his 900th career NHL game. … Montreal is 15-10-0 against Western Conference opponents this season.UP NEXTCanadiens: Visit Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday.Predators: Visit Vegas Golden Knights Saturday. SUNRISE , Fla. (AP) — The Florida Panthers are hoping for deja vu.Sort of.A year ago, the Panthers shook off a disastrous start to the season and caught fire after the All-Star break — only to miss the playoffs by a single point. This year, they’re heading into the break on a three-game winning streak and playing perhaps their best hockey of the season after spending the first three months of the year sputtering near the bottom of the NHL.So here they go again, trying for another late and improbable playoff push.“We have that confidence back, that swagger,” goaltender Roberto Luongo said after a 6-2 win over San Jose on Monday night.They’ll need more than swagger.The Panthers were 24-8-2 in the final 34 games last season, getting 50 of a possible 68 points down the stretch. This year, with 34 games left when they return to the ice on Feb. 1, they’ll need a similar run. Florida is 10 points out of the final wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference, and 11 points from catching Boston for the third and final guaranteed playoff spot out of the Atlantic Division.“I think we are starting to turn the corner,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. “We have a long way to go.”As unlikely as it seems — especially for the Panthers, an often-woebegone franchise that hasn’t won a playoff series since 1996 — there is a potential path to the postseason.Florida (20-20-8) has 12 games between Feb. 1 and Feb. 23, and 11 of those are on home ice. That’s the good news. The flip side is this: Of those 12, eight are against teams that are currently in the top half of the NHL, including matchups with Tampa Bay, Nashville , Washington, Pittsburgh and Vegas quickly after the All-Star break ends.“It’s nice to be back to feeling the way I like to feel and the confidence is there,” said Luongo, who has won consecutive starts for the first time in more than a month. “The guys are playing well in front of me. It’s a two-way street. When the guys play well I feel good and when I feel good the guys play well.”There is a clear urgency, and it started last week with the team on what was then a seven-game losing skid.Florida was without Vincent Trocheck for 27 games after he broke his right ankle in November. When he returned to practice last week, the Panthers’ plan was to keep him out until after the break in order to make sure he was fully ready to go.Trocheck successfully argued otherwise. Not only did he play in three games since returning to practice — in a four-day span, no less — the Panthers went 3-0-0 in those games, clearly sparked by his comeback.“We’re having fun,” said Trocheck, who has two goals and two assists since returning. “It’s fun to win some hockey games. It’s been tough for us this year in that department. To go into a break like this with a little bit of momentum, having some fun, it’s going to make a big difference for the second half.”

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