Takeaways: Nashville Predators edge past league leading Coloardo

It was a battle between David and Goliath at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

The last-place Nashville Predators hosted the top-ranked Colorado Avalanche. Nashville was coming off a blowout loss to Carolina, while Colorado had won 14 of its last 16.

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In a back-and-forth battle that saw the Avalanche force overtime in the final minute, it was a lone shootout goal by Ryan O’Reilly that gave the Predators the 4-3 upset victory.

Jonathan Marchessault had the game-tying goal on the power play, which was quickly followed by Reid Schaefer’s second career goal for a 2-1 Predators lead. In the third, Brady Skjei scored his first goal of the season to give Nashville a late 3-2 lead.

Here are three takeaways from the Predators win over the Avalanche.

Similar to the first meeting, the Predators went down in the first two minutes of the game. In the Nov. 22 game, Nashville gave up a goal 15 seconds into the game. Tuesday, it was 72 seconds into the game, off a goal from Brock Nelson.

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However, unlike the previous meeting, the Predators’ offense got going. Less than two minutes late, Jonathan Marchessault scored on the power play to tie the game up. It didn’t stop there, as 1:25 later, Reid Schaefer scored his second goal of the season to give the Predators the lead.

Nashville kept the pressure on in the first period and kept pace with the best team in the league. Colorado tied the game to end the period, but Nashville looked like the better team throughout.

The Predators managed to stay out of the penalty box in the first period and even had two power plays. It’s a significant change from Nashville’s past two games, where it has had 12 penalties over that stretch.

The Predators had a significant fall off in the second period, getting…