We’ve seen this act before.

Down 4-1 midway through the third period in Minnesota, the Nashville Predators were dead in the water. The momentum they gained before the All-Star break was toast. Pekka Rinne’s nine-game winning streak was history.

With their backs against the wall in the third period, however, a switch was flipped – the same switch the Preds have flipped time and time again through the team’s first 50 games. On the strength of four third-period goals, including Mike Fisher’s winner with 20.8 seconds left, the Preds stormed back to miraculously beat Minnesota, 5-4, in regulation.

The dramatic comeback victory meant the Preds put themselves in another early hole. Dany Heatley scored twice in the first period to put the Wild ahead 2-0, as the Preds-killer was left open in front of the net both times. Early in the second period, Cal Clutterbuck extended the Wild lead to 3-0 on an odd goal in which Rinne lost track of the puck.

At the 9:33 mark of the second period, Matt Halischuk broke the shutout for the Preds when he tipped in his 12th goal of the season. The Preds sustained some pressure for the rest of the period, but couldn’t get another puck past Wild netminder Josh Harding. Minnesota regained momentum when Kyle Brodziak slid home a loose puck on the goal line just 16 seconds into the third. The goal gave Minnesota a 4-1 lead that seemed to be enough to get the win.

Not so fast.

Brandon Yip scored his first goal with his new team at 9:22 of the third, bringing the Preds within two goals of the Wild. Seven minutes later, Patric Hornqvist jammed in a greasy goal to cut the deficit to one. All of a sudden, the Preds had life. On the very next shift following Hornqvist’s team-leading 15th goal, Mike Fisher finished off a feed from Colin Wilson to tie the game at 4-4 with exactly three minutes remaining.

When the game looked destined for overtime, Fisher picked off a clearing attempt and simply fired the puck towards the net. His shot from the half wall eluded Harding to put the Preds on top 5-4 with 20.8 seconds left. The Preds held on for their sixth comeback win of the season, stunning the Wild in the process.

Though Fisher will get the accolades for scoring the tying and winning goals late in the third, the Preds’ fourth line kept the team in the game. Craig Smith was effective early on, while Halischuk and Yip had two points each. They were the Preds’ only consistent line of the night.

Rinne notched his franchise-record 10th consecutive win, and it wouldn’t have been possible with a key pad save on Matt Cullen with the Wild leading 4-2 midway through the third.

With the victory, the Preds have won 13 of 15 and are now fourth in the Western Conference, but could not gain ground on the equally-hot Detroit Red Wings. This win was reminiscent to the comeback against Columbus on Dec. 22, in which the Preds overcame two separate three-goal deficits to win late in regulation.

The Predators (31-16-4) will look to keep the momentum going when they travel to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers on Thursday night.