It was a big two points for the Nashville Predators, posting a 5-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets at Bridgestone Arena last night. The Preds snapped Winnipeg’s four game win streak with a dominating second period that saw the team post three in the middle stanza and salt the game away with a fifth early in the third.
The game started out with the Jets taking advantage of their speed and flying up and down the ice, outshooting the Preds 12-5… but Nashville’s Kevin Fiala scored on a simply sick spin a rama back hand that Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck is still looking for. It was an indicator of things to come. The lead didn’t last long at Mathieu Perreault tied it up a few minutes later. A lot of times the shot count is not a great indicator of which team had the better of the other… this is not one of those times as shots definitely indicated better than the 1-1 score at the end of the period.
The second period saw the Predators come out firing. Ryan Johansen got his second in three games just :26 seconds into the frame, burying a sweet feed from Filip Forsberg who took advantage of a Jacob Trouba turnover. Then Kyle Turris ripped a laser under Hellebuyck’s arm on the power play to put Nashville up 3-1. Then… a back-breaker goal… :58 seconds left in second period and Mattias Ekholm blasted his 5th of the season and his fourth consecutive game with a goal to give the Preds a 4-1 lead heading into the locker room. Pred Nation was happy with the goal, and overjoyed that Ekholm’s goal gave them Frosty’s (for the 4th goal) and a Big Mac (goal in the last five minutes of the second) on one shot. Pred fans will not go hungry today.
Give the Jets credit, they did not pack it in, even after Nick Bonino’s goal midway through the third. This is a good hockey team that showed quite a bit of pride in fighting back with a couple of late game goals that ended up too little too late as Nashville took the victory, their seventh in the past eight games, using a combination of secondary scoring, solid two-way play and an opportunistic offense from the top two lines to make things a living hell for their opponents.
You saw the frustration in Paul Maurice last night, whenever he stacked up the Turris line, the JoFA line scored… stack up JoFA, Turris’ line tallied. For the speed and talent Maurice has at his disposal, you saw how it wasn’t enough. Here are the highlight’s…
The Predators are back in action tomorrow night against Shea Weber and the Montreal Canadiens… 7pm puck drop for this
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Random Notes
- Ryan Johansen posted his 300th career point on his goal last night.
- Last night was the fifth consecutive game that Smashville got Frosty’s
- Five different Preds scored last night
- Somebody break up the Coyotes! Big 4-1 win last night in Toronto.
- KHL Watch – Eeli Tolvanen’s Jokerit club was idle yesterday. The Predators prospect has 16 goals and 13 assists for 29 points in 29 games. Jokerit is back in action Wednesday against Avangard.
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