Nashville center Jason Arnott, left, celebrates his assist on the eventual game-winning goal scored by defenseman Ryan Suter against Pittsburgh defenseman Brooks Orpik and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury Thursday. The Penguins fell 5-3.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Nashville Predators overcame an early three-goal deficit to hand the free-falling Pittsburgh Penguins another loss.

Ryan Suter's power-play goal at 9:04 of the third period broke a 3-3 tie, and the Predators beat the Penguins 5-3 Thursday night to snap a five-game losing streak.

Pittsburgh has lost six of its last seven games.

"We didn't deserve to win the hockey game," Penguins star Sidney Crosby said. "You can't cut corners, and, for us, we didn't play well enough throughout the whole game."

With Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi in the penalty box for interference, Suter fired a slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle. The puck deflected off of Pittsburgh defenseman Mark Eaton and past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

"We were easily doubting ourselves when it was 3-0 and we could have easily called it a night and packed up shop but we didn't," Suter said. "At the end of the game, it was nice to celebrate a win again."

Petr Sykora put the Penguins in front 1-0 at 14:18 of the first period off of a nice pass from Sidney Crosby. Pittsburgh made it 3-0 on goals by Jordan Staal and Maxime Talbot 21 seconds apart before the second period was 4 minutes old.

Staal's goal spelled the end of the night for Nashville goalie Dan Ellis, with Predators coach Barry Trotz lifting his starter for backup Pekka Rinne.

Nashville scored three consecutive goals to conclude the wild second period.

"Our resiliency got tested tonight," Trotz said. "All three of our goals there in the second were hard-nosed goals, and those are the kind of goals we need."

Martin Erat's goal at 7:57 got the Predators on the board. David Legwand scored a short-handed goal at 13:32, and Jerred Smithson tied it with 54.6 left in the second.

Legwand's goal was set up by Erat on a 2-on-1 short-handed rush. From the left side, Erat sent a cross-ice pass to Legwand in the right circle. Legwand beat a helpless Fleury with a one-timer to the glove side. Two of Legwand's seven goals on the season have been scored with the Predators short-handed.

"Right now, we find ways to always let the other team back in the game," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed with the performance of a lot of guys."