By Bucky Dent, The Sports Xchange

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With nothing at stake except pride and contractual obligation, the Nashville Predators celebrated Thursday night's win as though it were one obtained in a more important game, such as the ones they'll play next week.

Left winger Filip Forsberg forced overtime with a dramatic tip-in goal at 19:41 and defenseman Roman Josi won it at 20 seconds into the extra period, giving Nashville just its second victory in 14 games decided in overtime with a 3-2 verdict over the Arizona Coyotes.

In improving to 41-26-14, the Predators gave a franchise-record 35th sellout crowd of 17,113 several milestones to enjoy on Fan Appreciation Night.

There was defenseman Shea Weber's power-play marker at 7:26 of the third period that started Nashville's rally from a 2-0 deficit that seemed insurmountable, given its spotty play and the great work of Arizona goalie Mike Smith, who stopped probably a half-dozen Grade A chances among his 28 saves.

It was Weber's 14th man-advantage tally of the season, tying a team record shared by Andy Delmore and Paul Kariya.

"It was a great character comeback," Weber said. "Guys stuck to the system."

Pressing the issue with consistency that wasn't quite there in the first 40 minutes, the Predators finally equalized inside the final 20 seconds with a sixth skater. Josi flipped a wrister from the right point and Forsberg managed to deflect it by Smith for his 33rd goal, matching Jason Arnott's franchise mark set in 2008-09.

"I was just trying to be in front of the net," Forsberg said. "I wasn't really expecting (Josi) to shoot it, but when he did, I just tried to get a piece of it. Obviously, (the record) is pretty big, but I'm just really excited about the win."

After becoming the first defenseman in team history to hit 60 points with his helper on Forsberg's goal, Josi extended his club record pretty quickly. Skating around a defender on the right wing, Josi maneuvered in front of Smith and slipped a forehand by him at point-blank range for his 14th goal.

"It's always nice to get a win. I wish we would have done it a little sooner," Josi joked.

Nashville possessed a 31-18 advantage in shots on net, but Smith kept it off the board for more than 47 minutes. He turned away right winger Craig Smith on point-blank chances in each of the first two periods, then stoned Forsberg twice on the same breakaway late in the second period.

Meanwhile, Arizona (35-38-8) made the most of its few opportunities to carry a two-goal advantage into the third period. Center Antoine Vermette scored on its first shot, deflecting a slapper by defenseman Zbynek Michalek at 6:26 of the first period for his 17th goal.

Right winger Shane Doan made it 2-0 at 9:42 of the second period with a classic one-timer from the left faceoff circle for his 28th goal of the season and the 396th of his career. Right winger Brad Richardson had the lead assist as the Coyotes capitalized on a failed clearing attempt.

But Arizona never really carried play, attempting only 31 total shots, and the inability to mount consistent zone time came back to hurt it.

"It's frustrating," defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. "I think we had a good chance here to win this game and obviously (Smith) kept us in it for three periods. But obviously, we couldn't close out."

As for the Predators, they wrap up the regular season with a trip to Dallas Saturday night, then will play the Pacific Division winner -- either Anaheim or Los Angeles -- in the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs.

"You want to feel good about the way you played," coach Peter Laviolette said. "I thought we played well through the first 40 minutes. The fact that the guys kept with it and didn't get frustrated and continued to push … I thought it was a strong 60 minutes."

Goalie Pekka Rinne made 16 saves to garner his 34th win for Nashville.

NOTES: Arizona LW Eric Selleck (upper-body) skated at practice Wednesday but didn't play Thursday night. … Nashville D Anthony Bitetto (lower-body) drew back into the lineup after missing the last nine games with a lower-body injury. … The Coyotes scratched D Nicklas Grossmann, RW Viktor Tikhonov and LW Sergei Plotnikov. … Predators scratches were D Barret Jackman, LWs Eric Nystrom and Austin Watson, and RW Miikka Salomaki.