Canes Beat Predators in Tight OT Finish (Canes)

Canes

Canes Beat Predators in Tight OT Finish

By Ben Case

Nov 5, 2016 • 7:18 pm

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The Canes finally won a game in overtime and were able to steal a game away from the Predators. Cam Ward was stellar all night and was able to shut down all three Nashville players in the shootout. Despite getting the 2 points, the Canes as a whole did not play a great game.

The first period in particular was rough for the Hurricanes and the only reason the game didn’t see a Columbus-Montreal result on the board after one is because of Cam Ward. The Canes looked oblivious in the defensive zone, turned the puck over multiple times, gave up 4 breakaways and a few odd-man rushes too. As the Canes came into the evening, limiting turnovers, transitional opportunities and trying to slow the Predators speed were essential—they did none of those in the first period.

The Canes started the first few minutes off with a great fore-check and appeared to be heading in the right direction. As the period continued on, they pretty much completely disappeared offensively after failing to convert on two early PP chances.f the period. Ward made his first truly fantastic save around 7 minutes into the period on James Neal—he came in all alone and Ward made the save five-hole.

The Predators took the lead less than a minute after killing their second penalty as Wilson found a streaking James Neal for a breakaway as both Murphy and Hainsey got caught flat-footed. This time, he faked a shot and got Ward to go down and then pulled it to the glove side and tucked it home past a sprawling Ward.

The Canes had a few chances shortly after the goal and weren’t able to convert. Probably the best chance the Canes had was off of a play that saw Faulk beat a defender and ring one off the glove-side post of Rinne. Shortly after that, Rinne had a nice save on a deflected shot from Slavin that was tipped Lindholm off a Nashville defensive zone turnover.

Nashville almost secured a two-goal lead as McClement lost his footing as he was skating along the offensive blueline. Luckily, despite giving up their third breakaway of the period, Ward stopped Yannick Weber on a high blocker shot.

Towards the end of the period, Murphy dangerously passed a D to D pass to Hanifin in the offensive zone. As soon as Hanifin received the pass, Johansen poked it free for the Predators 4th breakaway of period –luckily Murphy was able to get a stick on him to help force his shot wide. The Canes had a few more turnovers in the period, however, the Predators failed to connect on backdoor passes or hit the net.

The Canes must’ve received a stern talking to during intermission as they came out significantly better in the second. Coach Peters decided to change the lines sending Aho up to the 2nd line with Staal and Nordstrom. Nestrasil dropped from the 2nd line and played on the 4th line and Stalberg took Aho’s place on the 3rd line.

The second period saw Nashville and Carolina trade a few chances early but nothing too spectacular. Nashville got their first PP opportunity 6 minutes into the period as Rask slashed Neal’s stick out of his hand—The Predators failed to convert and extend the lead despite some great chances.

Following the successful PK, the Canes appeared to get bump of momentum. Rinne had a fantastic save around the middle point of the period on a one-time opportunity from Aho that Rinne got with his left pad. Shortly after, the Canes got another quality chance as Lindholm fed Terravainen a pass from behind the net as he crashed the goal-line—Rinne stuffed him as he attempted to fire it past him low. The Canes had a few more chances, however, the Predators blocked the shots to help Rinne out. The pressure amounted to such a high level, the Predators eventually had to ice the puck with 8 minutes remaining and take their timeout because of how tired their players were.

The Canes finally found the net on a turnover from Nashville—Skinner took the puck and skated between the hashmarks as Stempniak went to the front of the net for a screen. Skinner did a “spin-o-rama… back towards Rinne’s blocker side and snapped a low, hard shot that deflected off his defensemen in front and beat Rinne past his blocker.

Less than a minute after, Murphy tried to make a D to D pass on his backhand which resulted in a turnover. Johansen gathered the loose puck at the Canes blueline and had another opportunity to walk-in uncontested on Ward and was stymied with an excellent glove save to keep it tied. The Canes appeared to go flat after the save and Nashville kept the pressure on. Eventually, they worked the puck from the corner and up to the blueline where Irwin snapped a shot from the point that found the net. Lindholm made matters worse for Ward as he skated into the shooting lane to screen him,extended his foot to block the puck and missed it.

Skinner took a dangerous hit late in the period when Johansen took an elbow to his head. The Canes unfortunately were unable to convert again on the PP despite Aho having a wide open backdoor one-timer on Rinne’s glove side. The rest of the PP was pretty slow and the Predators held a 2-1 lead heading into intermission.

The third started a bit slowly and Nashville got the first stellar opportunity a Canes forward turned the puck over after being stick-checked by Johansen. Johasnsen went in 2-1 and slide it across to a wide open guy at the top of Ward’s crease. Despite the tic-tac-toe play and point blank shot, Ward was able to get across with a full-split extension and get his blocker on the puck to stuff Arviddson.

The Predators went on the PP with around 13 minutes remaining in the game and the Canes played some great D. The PK continued to stack the defensive zone blueline and started to force turnovers—The Canes tied it with a shorthanded goal off a turnover when Lindhom streaked down the wing into the Predators zone, did a Gretzky-turn and dropped a pass between the circles to a streaking Hainsey who split the D and did a quick forehand-backhand deke and finished it off five-hole.

The rest of the period was essentially the “Cam Ward Show… as his teammates disappeared and went back to their brutal first period form. Ward kept it tied with seven minutes remaining as an uncontested Roman Josi walked in and fired a shot from the bottom of the circles on Ward who he made a fantastic save. Ward made another great backdoor five-hole save on a one-timer from Arviddson shortly after and then followed it up with another point blank shoulder save on Johansen. The final few minutes saw the Predators continuing to get chances, however, Ward was able to get the Canes to OT. While the shots at the end of regulation were almost equal, most of the Canes shots came off of low-quality chances.

The overtime was mostly controlled by the Predators who got some excellent chances from Neal and Forsberg, however, Ward held strong again. Skinner had one great chance but fired it past Rinne and wide of his glove-side. Since neither team was able to win it in the 3-3 OT, they went to the shootout which saw only one goal. Slavin was able to end the shootout on a great deke that beat Rinne to his blocker side and get the Canes their first OT win.

This was a huge win for the Canes, especially because they were 0-3 in OT. They desperately needed to get 2-points tonight and will hopefully be able to get some strong momentum as they have six of the next seven at home. The Canes are back on the ice tomorrow at home against the Devils.

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