BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins were sick on Saturday.

Yes, that's right, the entire team. No, it wasn't the flu bug or any other kind of illness. The struggling Bruins finally played a complete game and finished off one of the Western Conference's top teams, the Nashville Predators, with a 4-3 shootout victory at TD Garden. Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron both scored in the shootout.

The antibiotic prescribed for Boston? Two days of intense practices after a season's worst 6-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday. Bruins coach Claude Julien said he was hoping the three days leading up to Saturday's matinee against the Predators would serve as a wake-up call.

It did.

Bergeron scored a short-handed goal at 16:00 of the first period to give Boston a 1-0 lead.

With Boston holding a marginal one-goal lead early in the second period, the Bruins' Adam McQuaid was given a two-minute penalty for roughing and Nashville took advantage of the man-advantage. Predator defenseman Shea Weber unleashed a wicked slap shot from the left point to tie the game at 1-1. It was Nashville's first shot of the period at 7:32.

Boston's energy line of Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton provided the go-ahead goal at 2:55 of the third period. The Bruins' fourth unit played well the entire game. On Boston's second goal, Thornton controlled the puck behind the Nashville net and made a sweet no-look, backhand pass to Paille, who notched his ninth goal of the season.

Nashville responded moments later. The Predators knotted the game at 2-2 when Patric Hornqvist finished off a solid rush by teammate Sergei Kostitsyn at 9:33 of the third period. Nashville's Mike Fisher scored the go-ahead goal at 16:28 of the third for a 3-2 advantage.

This time, Boston didn't back down.

The Bruins drew a late penalty, and during the man-advantage pulled goalie Tim Thomas for the extra attacker to give Boston a 6-on-4 advantage. It worked as Milan Lucic scored his 20th goal of the season to tie the game at 3-3 at 18:53. With that goal, Lucic becomes the only player in the NHL this season to reach 20 goals and 100 penalty minutes.

After an idle overtime period, Seguin and Bergeron scored in the shootout to help the Bruins to victory.

MASKED MEN: Saturday's game featured the first ever head-to-head matchup of Tim Thomas and Pekka Rinne. The two didn't even play against each other during the 2004-2005 lockout season when both played in Finland. Both Thomas and Rinne were Vezina Trophy finalists last season, with the Bruins goalie winning the honors.

CALL ME SHORTY: Bergeron netted the team's seventh short-handed goal of the season at 16:00 of the first period. It was his first shorty of the season, too. Teammate Brad Marchand supplied all the grunt work in the offensive zone during the PK and made a nifty pass to Bergeron, who snipped a wrister past Rinne to give Boston a 1-0 lead.

STILL TRYING: It's no coincidence that David Krejci has not scored a goal since Jan. 22 against the Philadelphia Flyers. That was the day linemate Nathan Horton suffered a concussion, and he has not played since. Krejci has been playing with Jordan Caron and Benoit Pouliot of late. Krejci had a golden opportunity to pump one in during the second period, but the puck bounced off his stick. That's the way it's been going for him lately. He was the Bruins' first shooter in the shootout but could not score.

UP NEXT: The Bruins host the Eastern Conference's top-ranked New York Rangers Tuesday night at TD Garden. After that game, Boston will embark on a six-game road trip through Montreal, Winnipeg, Minnesota, St. Louis, Buffalo and Ottawa before its next game at home on Feb. 28.