Mighty Ducks 4, Predators 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Anaheim's Joffrey Lupul has been impressed with the play of his team on the road lately.

Lupul scored two goals to spark the Mighty Ducks to a 4-2 victory over the Nashville Predators.

"To start out the road trip with a loss at Columbus, and then win the next two, especially this one against Nashville which has the best home record in the league is pretty impressive," said Lupul.

The two teams combined for five goals in the first period. The Predators jumped out to an early lead as Greg Johnson scored from the left side of the goal, shooting the puck behind Anaheim goaltender Ilja Bryzgalov at the 2:53 mark.

Yanic Perreault gave the Predators a 2-0 lead on a breakway, firing a wrist shot past Bryzgalov from the middle of the slot at 12:53.

Anaheim tied the game with consecutive goals from Lupul at 13:20 and 16:29.

"I thought we showed a tremendous amount of resilience in the fact that we got down 2-0, but we didn't change," said Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle. "We didn't stop working. We established our forechecking game and that gave us a chance. We worked right through to the end. We played a lot harder than we have in a lot of the games so far this season, specifically on the road. And we were rewarded."

The Mighty Ducks won their second road game in as many nights. They beat St. Louis 5-4 in a shootout on Saturday. It was the third loss in a row for the Predators.

"A little bit of a turning point is that they scored 17 seconds after we got a 2-0 lead," said Nashville coach Barry Trotz. "You've got to prevent that from happening. That gave them a little bit of life. When you have a 2-0 lead you have to break the other team's will and keep going."

Scott Niedermayer's power play goal from the top edge of the left circle with 40 seconds left in the period capped a 21-shot performance by Anaheim against Nashville goaltender Tomas Vokoun in the first period.

"It was important for us as a team how we played when we got the lead," said Niedermayer. "We kept going at them. We didn't make it easy for them. There have been games this year where we haven't done that and let team's back into a game."

Anaheim made it a two-goal advantage at 17:03 of the second. A shot by Teemu Selanne bounced off Vokoun's pads and Jonathan Hedstrom skated in to shoot the rebound past Vokoun.

"I thought we gave them way too much room," said Trotz. "There is a fine line between respect and giving them too much respect. We were giving them a zone to create some speed."

The Mighty Ducks peppered Vokoun with 36 shots. Bryzgalov stopped 21-of-23 shots.

"They threw a lot of rubber at us," said Trotz. "The 21 shots in the first period were embarrassing. Most of those came in the final seven minutes when we were shorthanded. That's how they were scoring. You've got to get dirty and gritty in this league to score goals. We want to make the fancy play. They were throwing pucks at the net.

Notes: Lupul has 15 points (7 goals, 8 assists) in his last 15 games and has set a new career high in goals scored in a season with 15. Perreault has scored four goals in three games against Anaheim this season. Anaheim is 5-5-2 overall in back-to-back games and 3-2-1 in the second of back-to-back games.