Predators 4

Devils 3

The Devils’ Nine O’Clock Lightning wasn’t quite enough, but they pulled something from little or nothing again.

For the fourth time in their past five games, the Devils picked up at least a point they weren’t getting when those third periods opened. Last night, they waited until 2:07 remained to start erasing a two-goal deficit, tying the score on Brian Gionta’s second of the night with 11.6 seconds left before losing to Nashville 4-3 via the shootout at the Meadowlands.

“It’s great that we show a lot of fight and don’t give up, but you can’t be successful that way every night,” said Scott Gomez, who started the comeback at 17:53 of the third, after the Devils trailed 3-1.

“It’s definitely something we have to be concerned about,” Gomez said after the Devils’ first home loss of the season.

Still, they earned a point in front of Scott Clemmensen, making his first start of the season.

“We definitely didn’t start the way I would have liked,” said Clemmensen, who allowed two power-play goals on the first three shots he faced. “We dug ourselves a hole, but we played pretty well for most of the game.”

The Devils started this third-period-rally trend against Toronto, down three to win a 7-6 shootout verdict, then beat Philadelphia and Pittsburgh from tied scores after two.

Their visions of another victory ended when Patrik Elias lost control of the puck as the last shootout-taker, only able to fire into the chest of Chris Mason. Martin Erat scored on Clemmensen as Nashville’s third shooter, after Marek Zidlicky and Paul Kariya failed for the Predators, and Zach Parise and Brian Gionta missed against Mason.

“It hit something on the ice and kind of stopped,” Elias said of his shootout bobble. “We didn’t play a good hockey game, but we stuck with it. We kept battling and at the end, we got a point. We’ll take that.”

Both teams had won a night earlier, the Devils 2-1 in Pittsburgh and Nashville 3-0 against the Rangers at the Garden. Instead of Martin Brodeur, Claude Julien gave Clemmensen his first start of the year, and the Predators used Chris Mason for the second time over Tomas Vokoun.

*

Devils rookie Travis Zajac left the game after two periods. . . . Nashville swept its metropolitan swing, beating the Islanders, Rangers and Devils. . . . Steve Sullivan, another former Devil who shares Nashville’s scoring lead with Arnott, sat out with back spasms. . . . Brad Lukowich sat out a third straight game with a foot injury, and Dan LaCouture was scratched a second straight game.