NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Colorado Avalanche left winger Andreas Martinsen eyeballed the puck, floating in mid-air within reach on his backhand side.

"I thought I'd go ahead and try it," Martinsen said, "so I hit it."

Martinsen's downward swing of his stick sent the puck into the net just before the midway point of the third period, snapping a tie and lifting Colorado to a 3-2 verdict on Saturday night over the Nashville Predators at sold-out Bridgestone Arena.

It was just the second goal of the season for Martinsen, who pounced on the rebound of a shot by center Carl Soderberg at 9:37 as the Avalanche (13-16-1) started a three-game trip against Central Division rivals by upping their road mark to 9-9-0.

Goalie Semyon Varlamov (8-8-1) protected the lead with 34 saves, including 13 in the third period. Varlamov came up with a pair of critical stops during a Nashville power play after Martinsen's tiebreaker, stoning center Calle Jarnkrok from the slot and kicking out a slapper by defenseman Ryan Ellis just before time expired in the Predators' fifth unsuccessful man advantage.

The result also allowed Colorado to rinse the taste of Wednesday night's bitter 4-2 loss to Pittsburgh from its mouth. Leading that game 2-1 after 40 minutes, the Avalanche coughed it up by allowing three goals after it failed to take advantage of a five-on-three power play.

"Today, we just kept going. We were just better throughout the game and hopefully we can keep that up," Martinsen said.

Coming off an emotional 5-1 win on Thursday night over Chicago, Nashville couldn't replicate that standard of play, even though it put 36 shots on net to Colorado's 25 and owned a 68-39 advantage in attempted shots.

The Predators were sloppy in the first period, allowing a power play goal and a second goal five seconds after another Avalanche power play ended. They also ceded a possession edge to the NHL's worst team in terms of possession time.

"I don't think we were very good in the first," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "We fought hard in the second and third period, but we couldn't catch up to it. Colorado came in here with a pointed game and we were catching that in the first period."

Colorado took advantage of a botched clearing attempt to hit the scoreboard first. Two defenders could have swatted the puck out of the zone midway through the power play and couldn't.

Defenseman Francois Beauchemin reaped the benefits, using a screen by center Matt Duchene to rip a slapper past goalie Pekka Rinne at 8:37.

Five seconds after killing the Avs' next man advantage, the Predators (15-10-5) blew a defensive coverage and defenseman Nick Holden turned a cross-ice feed by left winger Alex Tanguay into a tap-in goal at 14:38.

Right winger Miikka Salomaki got Nashville on the board with a deflection of Ellis' wrister at 19:52 of the first. The Predators outshot Colorado 10-1 in the second period, earning three power plays, but couldn't crack Varlamov or a tight defense that blocked 17 shots.

"Special teams won that game for us," Duchene said.

Nashville equalized at 58 seconds of the third period when center Craig Smith rocketed a one-timer from the left point for his seventh goal of the season. But it couldn't come up with another response after Martinsen's goal, although defenseman Shea Weber came tantalizingly close in the final minute when his slapper caromed off Varlamov's glove and the top of the crossbar.

Rinne (12-8-5) made 22 saves for the Predators, who lost for the sixth time in nine games and haven't pieced together consecutive wins since mid-November.

"We could have been better tonight," Laviolette said.

As his team hurriedly showered and packed for a postgame flight to St. Louis, where they play in a late-afternoon start on Sunday, Avalanche coach Patrick Roy spread out the superlatives.

"I thought we played a strong game," he said. "We had a big power play goal. Our (penalty kill) was really good. We blocked shots; we were very disciplined in our structure. I thought we did a really good job."

NOTES: Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog (back) sat out his second straight game but could return Sunday in St. Louis. ... Nashville C Mike Fisher and LW Colin Wilson missed their sixth and third consecutive games, respectively, with lower-body injuries. ... The Avalanche scratched D Zach Redmond. D Anthony Bitetto was scratched by the Predators.