NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Stifled for most of two periods Thursday night, the Nashville Predators exploded with no warning against the St. Louis Blues.

Calle Jarnkrok sandwiched goals around James Neal's tiebreaker in a 6:24 span bridging the end of the second period and the start of the third period, lifting Nashville to a 3-1 decision at sold-out Bridgestone Arena.

Trailing 1-0 and having trouble generating a coherent attack against St. Louis' defense, Nashville flipped the script in a hurry. Colin Wilson's backhand pass from the right corner caromed off a defender's skate onto Jarnkrok's stick, and he beat former Predators goalie Carter Hutton with a wrister at 18:26 of the second period.

Nashville (5-5-3) took the lead for good at 3:44 of the third period when Neal turned Mike Ribeiro's feed off the left half-wall into his fourth goal of the season, wristing a shot over Hutton's glove.

On their next shot, the Predators made it a two-goal game when Jarnkrok skated into the slot and whipped Mike Fisher's sweet pass into his second goal at 4:50.

The outburst gave Nashville points in five straight games and dropped the Blues to 7-5-3. St. Louis is just 3-5-1 in its last nine games, tallying just 14 goals in that span.

Its lone goal in this one came on its second shot. Jaden Schwartz beat Pekka Rinne to the glove side at 3:59 of the first period off the setup from Vladimir Tarasenko. It was the third goal of the season for Schwartz.

Hutton, who served as Rinne's backup for the last three seasons, was sharp most of the game, helped by a defense that kept the Predators out of the prime scoring areas during most of the first two periods.

St. Louis killed off four minors in the first two periods, including 77 seconds of five-on-three time late in the second period. At that point, the audience of 17,113 was booing.

But Jarnkrok's first goal turned the game for good.

NOTES: St. Louis RW Nail Yakupov, a healthy scratch the last three games, drew back into the lineup in favor of C Robby Fabbri, who played in the Blues' first 14 games. ... Nashville C Mike Fisher (upper-body injury) returned to the lineup after missing the previous three games. He was hurt Nov. 1 in Colorado. ... St. Louis also scratched RW Ty Rattie in addition to Fabbri. ... The Predators scratched C Cody Bass and D Matt Carle.