Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist, Erik Haula and Adam Wilsby scored, and Brady Skjei had two assists for the Predators (14-16-4), who have won two of their past three. Juuse Saros made 19 saves.
“There’s still a lot to go here, but we’re responding well since that ugly game (an 8-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Nov. 24),” Nashville forward Michael Bunting said. “I think we’ve turned it around and kind of made a decision to play good hockey and turn this boat around. I feel like we’ve played well. I don’t know what we are in the last few games, but we’re definitely more wins than losses so that’s good. We’ve just got to keep building.”
Bobby McMann had a goal and an assist, and Nicolas Roy and John Tavares scored for the Maple Leafs (15-14-5), who have lost four of their past five (1-3-1). Nicholas Robertson had two assists, and Joseph Woll made 29 saves.
“I thought we had a better process tonight, honestly,” Toronto forward Auston Matthews said. “I thought we had the puck more, made more plays, allowed our forwards to kind of come through the neutral ice a little bit more. I think when you’re making adjustments kind of on the fly, it’s not going to be perfect right away. But I thought our process was much better.”
Roy gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead at 1:32 of the first period, tipping in a pass to the front of the net from McMann on an odd-man rush.