SlapShot Radio’s intrepid photographer was out capturing the color and the action of a Smashville Saturday Night. Here are the Sunday Shots!
Courtesy SlapShot Radio/Denise McCann Photography
Sometimes, you can build off the penalty kill to take a team’s heart. That’s what happened in the first period last night as Nashville Predators killed off 11 minutes of power play time and Craig Smith scored one of those “back-breaker” goals with :35 seconds left in the first period alone on the way to a 5-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche. Their 8th consecutive win over Colorado.
The Predators came out strong in the second, playing a much better possession game five-on-five and getting rewarded for it and rewarded with the kind of secondary scoring this team has been getting more consistently over the past few weeks. Colton Sissons put the Preds up 2-0 on a simply filthy tap in of a sweet JOsi setup. Then Anthony Bitetto scored his first of the year on a blast from the point about a minute and a half after Sisson’s goal.
You could feel the tension in the Arena… the team is up by three, what would happen now… ease up or step down?
The team most emphatically stepped down… scoring on the power play 7:52 in with Mattias Ekholm’s 4th of the year, extended Ekholm’s goal scoring streak to three games and giving Pred Nation those sweet Frosty’s they love so much. Viktor Arvidsson then put the icing on the cake (to mix my metaphor’s) with his 8th of the season.
Pekka Rinne was outstanding as usual, making 29 saves on 31 shots, giving up a couple of meaningless goals in the last few minutes of the third to make the final 5-2. The big save came right at the end of the second period as Rinne stoned Gabriel Landeskog on a point blank chance with just a couple of seconds left. While I am sure he would’ve liked to have the shutout, it just wasn’t in the cards.
Head coach Peter Laviolette mentioned it pregame and postgame… the Predators need to be better disciplined… the first period penalty parade certainly showed that. You can’t expect a 7 for 7 penalty kill production every night, but Nashville PK was excellent and the team seemed to fire off of it. The other thing I was looking for was playing with a lead… which they did well until the last five minutes of the game. Count it as half a lesson learned… here are the highlights…
It’s a holiday week so the Predators have a Monday – Wednesday game combination, the Winnipeg Jets are in tomorrow night for a 7pm faceoff
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Random Notes
- The Turris/Fiala/Smith line has found chemistry quick…
- I really like how this team drives the net… and they are reaping the rewards.
- Not much help from the rest of the division last night as everyone except the Av’s and the Wild won last night.
- Last night was Av’s defenseman Sam Girard’s ninth NHL game… decision time for Colorado.
- KHL Watch - Eeli Tolvanen’s Jokerit club was idle yesterday. Tolvanen has has 16 goals and 13 assists for 29 points in 29 games. Jokerit is back in action Wednesday night against Avangard.
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