WASHINGTON -- Suddenly playing extra time isn't such a losing proposition for the Nashville Predators.

Viktor Arvidsson scored at 1:05 of overtime and the Predators defeated the Washington Capitals 2-1 on Thursday night for their third straight victory.

It was Nashville's second straight overtime win and just their fourth in 11 games decided during 3-on-3 play.

"It's about eliminating odd-man rushes," Arvidsson said. "We have to stay on the right side and I think we've done a better job of that. Eliminating scoring chances and taking advantage of the chances we get."

With his team battling St. Louis for third place in the Central Division, the Predators can ill afford to leave overtime points on the table and head coach Peter LaViolette said he ran through 5-minute sessions of 3-on-3 during practice recently.

"Guys are getting better at it, more comfortable with it," he said.

On the game winner, Arvidsson took a pass from Ryan Johansen and entered the zone as part of a two-on-one with P.K. Subban and elected to shoot, wristing a shot past Braden Holtby for his 25th goal of the season.

"Quick pass 2-on-1 with Arvy with the puck there," Johansen said, "the way he's been shooting, there's almost no better person to have it there."

James Neal scored his 21st of the season for Nashville -- increasing his point streak to five games -- and Pekka Rinne stopped 22 shots in his 500th NHL game.

"He played great," LaViolette said of Rinne. "If you got a milestone game like that it's always good to be really sharp the way he was. Makes you feel good about it."

Nashville (35-24-11) has earned at least one point in 11 of its last 13 games.

Brett Connolly scored for Washington (45-17-8) and Holtby made 22 saves. The Capitals have lost five of six and dropped just their second home game since Dec. 29.

The Capitals appeared to get caught in a line change on the play that resulted in the game-winning goal.

"When you don't have (the puck) you have to be positionally sound, you have to be patient and you can't make poor decisions," Capitals head coach Barry Trotz said of overtime play. "We made an in-between decision, they capitalized on it and we're sitting here with one less point than we feel we could have."

Washington took advantage of a Nashville mistake to take a 1-0 lead at 11:41 of the first period.

Lars Eller harassed Kevin Fiala into a turnover deep in the Nashville end that resulted in two Capitals alone in front against Rinne. Jakub Vrana passed across the slot to Connolly, who connected for his 15th goal of the season.

"We had a good start ... but we just let them hang around a little too much. We had some chances to score," Connolly said. "We weren't bad, but we weren't good enough tonight."

After looking stagnant on offense for much of the first two periods, Nashville began generating chances late in the second. Then with 1:04 left, Fiala atoned for his earlier miscue when he dropped a pass back to Neal, who fired past Holtby to the glove side from the top of the right circle.

"I thought they were a little quicker than us in the first, but we were able to find a gear halfway through the second and for the rest of the game we were able to push the pace and control it a little bit," LaViolette said.

NOTES: Washington D Kevin Shattenkirk returned after serving a two-game suspension for his hit on Kings D Kevin Gravel. ... Ds Taylor Chorney and Nate Schmidt did not dress for the Capitals. ... Predators G Pekka Rinne became the 16th NHL netminder to play his first 500 games with the one team. ... Nashville C Vernon Fiddler (upper-body injury) missed his fourth game, and D Anthony Bitetto and LW Henry Zolnierczyk were scratched. ... Nashville's Austin Watson traded punches with Washington's Tom Wilson in the third period after Wilson's hard hit on Colton Sissons. ... The Predators are 14-3-2 when James Neal scores. ... Washington fell to 37-7-5 when scoring first