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Big Win at Amalie

November 2, 2018, 9:39 AM ET [1 Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT
That was an interesting hockey game. If you just look at the score, you may think that the Nashville Predators dominated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 at Amalie Arena last night. You may think it was a fairly easy victory for a team that is on a road roll right now…

You would be incredibly wrong.

Nashville came out firing in the first period in a breathtaking up and down period of hockey, potting two goals. The first on a simply spectacular deflection from Kyle Turris. With Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn draped all over him, Turris managed to find Mattias Ekholm’s blast from the point, reaching out to deflect the shot past a surprised Andrei Vasilevsky to put the Preds up 1-0. It looked l;ike the teams would go to the room at that score until a late push by the Predators resulted in another incredible goal. With about :08 seconds to go in the period, Ryan Johansen found Roma Josi with a spinning backhanded seeing-eye pass that the captain hammered home. A back breaker goal that turned out to be the game winner.

The two goal lead… hmmmm… where have we seen this before?

Oh yeah… Tuesday night at the same rink… when the Bolts dug an 0-2 hole for themselves against New Jersey, then pounded home five consecutive goals to eventually take an 8-3 win. So, to no one’s surprise, the Lightning turned it on in the second period, dominating play for long stretches, pouring shot after shot on the Nashville net, 17 of them in total… only one of them found the back of the net as Slater Koekoek managed to slide one home… other than that… Pekka Rinne was there.

In his first game back from IR, Rinne was simply doing Pekka things in frustrating the high powered Tampa offense… to the point where the Bolts started aiming their shots just a bit too much, sending them wide, high and not on net as a direct result of Rinne’s play. The only reasons that Nashville survived the Tampa onslaught in the second period were Rinne and really solid defensive play. The teams left the ice after two periods with the Predators leading 2-1 and unease being felt throughout Pred Nation.

The Lightning came out strong again but the Predators handled it better, Tamps continued to throw shots at the net, but the high danger chances were not as plentiful and the zone time nowhere near as extended as the second period, you could see that the Lightning knew they were going to tie it up until…

Four minutes to go, Nashville manages what Willy Daunic presciently called for a few seconds earlier… a counterpunch. Ryan Johansen steals the puck in the high slot and reverses the play, streaking up the left wing and developing an odd man rush. He gets to the top of the offensive circle, dekes around the Tampa defender and finds Calle Jarnkrok who goes top cheddar to kill the Tampa momentum and deflate the crowd at Amalie Arena, just a filthy play from the big center and an awesome finish from Jarnkrok. Miikka Salomaki finished off the game with an empty netter to give Pred Nation Frostys today and seal the 4-1 win over the best of the East. Pekka Rinne posted 42 saves, a season high.

With the win, the Predators are the first team to 10 wins in the league, running their record to 10-3-0 and keeping their road record spotless at 6-0-0.


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Random Notes

- Viktor Arvidsson and Zac Rinaldo both missed yesterday’s game with lower body injuries and are listed as day-to-day as I write this.

- Last night was head coach Peter Laviolette’s 1,100 NHL game as a head coach, the 7th active coach to reach that milestone.

- Some folks rightly pointed out to me that the standings at the completion of play on 11/1 is the marker for playoffs… so, let’s update the list from Wednesday… the teams that are four points or more out of the playoffs as of completion of play on 11/1 are… East – Detroit and Florida (down significantly from the 10/30 list) and in the West – St. Louis, Vegas and LA (no change from 10/30) … if the trend holds, only one of those teams will make the playoffs.

- Don’t look now, but there are three Canadian teams leading the Pacific… Calgary. Vancouver and Edmonton…

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