The billing was that this game should feel like a playoff game. By the end of the 3rd period things finally lived up to their billing. Phoenix rallied from down two goals to tie things up and take it to a shootout. 15,970 held their breath as David Legwand broke in on Ilya Bryzgalov and scored the game winner for a 4-3 Predator victory. An impressive shootout considering Phoenix has a league leading 12 victories in that department.
Felder’s FICKLE Five:
1. The Goc Line Leads the Way - Very solid outing for the line of Sullivan, Goc, and Hornqvist. 2 goals for this line and both created with traffic and movement. You have to like the mix of veteran presence, hard work, and young scoring on this line. A solid combo that Trotzy will unlikely break up anytime soon.
2. Closing Out Games - This team is having some issues with their 3rd period play. They were unable to hold onto a tie game Tuesday and tonight almost cost themselves again by giving up a two goal lead. I'll discuss it a little further in the Final Thoughts but if you want to win a playoff round then you have no business letting other teams creep back into games. The Preds need to redevelop a killer instinct and close out some games early in the 3rd.
3. Disciplined Effort - I do like that the Preds didn't allow the Coyotes very many power plays. In fact, the only penalty called against Nashville was a questionable goaltender interference against Jordin Tootoo. Looking at the benefit of the replay it did appear the ref got the call wrong, however, you have to wonder if he is so quick to raise the arm if it's a Sullivan or Wilson breaking in as opposed to a guy with a reputation like Toots. Something to ponder my friends.
4. Special Teams - Two man advantages and 0 shots on goal. Just one penalty kill but 4 Phoenix shots on goal during that time. Still some work to be done here for sure. Preds man advantage is 0-13 at the moment.
5. The Other D-Men - We almost always talk about Weber and Suter, but tonight I felt the other D-men were pretty solid. I especially liked what I saw from Dan Hamhuis in this one. He had a goal, a +1 rating, and 3 shots on goal as well. Francis Bouillon finished +1 and also added up 3 hits and blocked shots. He doesn't get much attention but the Cube has quietly been solid this entire season. He and Goc fit the Predators system well and were really good acquisitions by David Poile and his front office staff.
Other Notes:
* Tonight’s scratches were Jason Arnott, Wade Belak, Denis Grebeshkov, and Joel Ward. For the 'Yotes, they scratched Paul Bissonnette, Robert Lang, Sami Lepisto, Viktor Tikhonov, and James Vandermeer. On the Phoenix IR list is Kurt Sauer and former Pred Scottie Upshall.
* 1ST PERIOD
* GOAL for PHOENIX - 14:06 to go. A 2 on 1 odd man rushes features Lee Stempniak and former Pred Vernon Fiddler breaking in with just Dan Hamhuis as the lone D-man back. Stempniak has the puck the entire way and then lasers it in high glove side on Rinne. A wicked shot but still, you'd like to see Peks square away to that one. Stempniak (24) from Keith Yandle (24) and Fiddler (20). Phoenix strikes first and takes the 1-0 lead.
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 6:51 to go. A nice flowing play with a sweet Hornqvist backhander to finish the play off. Sullivan takes the puck along the right boards and find Hornqvist in the dead center of the slot. Horny switches from forehand to backhand and puts the wrister on and then in the net stick side. Ilya Bryzgalov had little time to react to the pass, let alone the shot. A bit of traffic driving to the net helped this as well. Hornqvist (29) from Sullivan (32) and Marcel Goc (14). Preds have this one tied up now 1-1.
* END OF THE 1ST PERIOD – NSH: 1 PHX: 1 Positives - Outshot Phoenix by a 11-8 margin. Keeping the Yotes offense to the outside for the most part. Negatives - Phoenix won 52% of the faceoffs that period. Bit of a soft goal given up by Peks to Stempniak.
* 2ND PERIOD
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 18:55 to go. A cycle of the puck behind the net between Hornqvist and Goc spreads the Coyotes D a bit. Sullivan finds an open space in between the faceoff circles edge and the top left of the goaltenders crease. Goc gives a nice feed that allows a one time from Sully. Steve left no doubt as he sired the puck home high stick side before Bryzgalov could square away. That was Sullivan's first goal in 5 games and it was a timely one as well. Sullivan (15) from Goc (15) and Hornqvist (18). Preds take a 2-1 lead.
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 10:32 to go. J.P. Dumont goes after the puck in the corner to the stick side of Brygalov. He takes the hit from Shane Doan but keeps the puck along the boards for Cal O'Reilly. Cal makes an immediate pass to the slot where Dan Hamhuis was pinching in. Hammer immediately lets one fly and takes advantage as Bryzgalov overplayed the back door and opened up his stick side for an easy tally. This was the first time Hammer has scored a goal since December 27th. Hamhuis (5) from O'Reilly (9) and Dumont (27). Preds now take a two goal lead with a 3-1 score.
* 7:30 to go and Coyotes D-man Ed Jovanovski is down in the corner. The replay shows that Erat's stick came down on Jovanovski's left wrist with force. He was helped to the locker room. Speculation would say broken wrist but I'm sure there will be a better update later on. I'd be shocked if he returned to this game. That said, color me shocked when he played in the 3rd period. Guy's a warrior.
* END OF THE 2ND PERIOD – NSH: 3 PHX: 1 Positives - Strong period offensively for the Preds with their 2 goals for. Still leading SOG's 22-20. Negatives - 0 shots on goal during their man advantage. That puts them at 0 for their last 12 man advantage opportunities.
* 3RD PERIOD
* GOAL for PHOENIX - 6:32 to go. After killing off a Predator man advantage the Coyotes cut into the Nashville lead. Wojtek Wolski tallies his 21st goal of the season as he puts a puck through traffic along the ice and thru the wickets. Another soft one by Rinne there as he failed to drop to the butterfly and protect the five-hole shot. Wolski (21) from Yandle (25) and Lombardi (32). Preds need to seal this one off quickly, but for now hold a mere 3-2 lead.
* GOAL for PHOENIX - 3:57 to go. Keith Yandle ties this game up for Phoenix. The Coyotes have certainly had their foot on the pedal in this period and it shows. A slap shot from the point finds the twine and quickly has fans at the Bridge second guessing the play in this period. Yandle is having a very solid game on both ends of the ice in this one. Yandle (12) from Doan (36) and Wolski (35). We are now tied at 3.
* TO OT WE GO
* Some really intense end to end action in the extra frame. A couple of quality chances at both ends but neither goaltender relented.
* TO A SHOOTOUT WE GO - Phoenix has a league leading 12 shootout wins. The key here if you are Nashville is to not let Adrian Aucoin have the game on his stick. He's 5 for 5 in shootouts this year with each and every one a game deciding (and thus winning) goal.
* Stempniak led things off with a 5-hole goal. Cal O'Reilly responded to that tally with a high glove beauty. The no longer automatic Aucoin was stopped with a high glove block down. Erat then missed the net entirely trying to place his shot high glove. Rinne was beat by Vrbata on a forehand, backhand, top shelf move BUT, Radim hit the crossbar and didn't tally. Then to the surprise of some came Legwand onto the ice. David Legwand has not scored a regulation goal since January 2nd. With the game on the line Legwand decked and slammed it in through the 5-hole for the game winner. Pred fans appreciate that however, his goal total still stands at 10.
* FINAL SCORE – NSH - 4 PHX - 3.
My Three Stars:
1. Hornqvist - 1 goal, 1 assist, +1, game leading 6 shots on goal, and 2 hits.
Goalie Grade:B- – The starting goaltender tonight was Pekka Rinne for a season tying high of 8 straight starts. Rinne let in a soft one to start the night. From there he was solid until the 3rd period where I felt he was ok. The shootout was solid for Peks as he became the first goaltender to stop Aucoin in a shootout this season. All in all it wasn't a stellar performance but it was good enough to win. Rinne made 32 saves on 35 shots against and stopped 2 of the 3 shootout attempts.
Quotes:
Brandon Felder - "Talk about your line tonight with Goc and Hornqvist. Those guys had some good puck placement for you."
Steve Sullivan - "Yeah. I think our line has been really going well since we got put together in Atlanta. We've had some good road trips, been solid defensively, and we've been getting a lot of scoring chances. We've been momentum shifters when we needed to be and Horny is just having an outstanding season. It's been pretty easy for Goc and I to try and put the puck in his hands."
Felder - "That 3rd period was another situation where you guys had to be resilient and it almost mirrored the other night."
Sullivan - "Yeah. We gotta be better than that. There's no second guessing ourselves here. We can't give up a two goal lead. That's not playoff hockey, that's not winning hockey. We're happy we got the two points but we definitely can't be happy with the way we got it. When we are up two goals we gotta shut teams down, give them no opportunity to come back, no life, and it should be game over. Especially in our own barn. We definitely gotta get better at that."
*
Felder - "Looking at your goal is it one of those situation where it's almost more important to get your shot off quickly since the goaltender is going to have to react to it?"
Patric Hornqvist - "It's so hard. It got it on my backhand and just tried to shoot it on the blocker side and I saw it just go over his pad. Sully made a great pass too so lots of credit to him. But yeah, for sure you have to shoot it fast because the closer you come to the goalie you have less space to shoot it in the net so for sure you have to shoot it fast so you'll have more and more room to score."
*
Felder - "Both your team and Phoenix are coming off of a really hot stretch and both look like they will make playoffs. Considering that were you guys treating this more of a playoff style game since they are going to be in there?"
Pekka Rinne - "Yeah. That's what we talked about before the game. Our coaches mentioned that it's going to be a playoff style game. Obviously both teams probably don't think it was the best game defensively but still with effort, speed, and everything like that I think it was a playoff atmosphere. Both teams have been really hot lately so it was a good matchup and fun game to play."
Felder - Aucoin entered the game with 5 shootout goals on 5 attempts and they were all game winners including one against you. Nice for someone to finally stop that guy?"
Rinne - "Yeah. He's done the same shot every single time. He just comes in and shoots. So I just came far out and reading where he was going to shoot. I was happy to stop that. I was cheating a little bit but that's how it works."
Felder - "Any worries that it was going to go 10 rounds again?"
Rinne - "(laughs) Not really. After Cal scored I knew that either Marty or Leggy was going to score. I wasn't for sure but I was just hoping they would because I didn't want to go 10 rounds again but it was good."
*
Felder - "The Goc line was really solid tonight."
Barry Trotz - "Yeah I thought they were pretty solid. They got a lot of chances, couple goals, and that line has been going pretty good for us for the last little while. I just think that there continuing to go to the net. They went to the net, they shot, you look at the Sullivan goal and they kept pucks alive down low, used the back of the net, and found a bit of a soft spot in their coverage and buried their chance. The 1st goal, I can't remember the last time we scored a rush goal. We came out of the zone, really got the line, and Goc really drove the middle and that opened it up for Hornqvist to come up on the second wave. Our D jumped up and Patric put it over Brygalov's pad. The key to that was someone driving to the net and that was Goc doing that."
Final Thoughts:
The Preds have to learn how to close out games if they want to advance past the 1st round. With a Calgary loss to the Islanders tonight it would take an almost utter collapse for the Predators to miss the playoffs. That means it's now about jockeying for the right position. The Preds were very good for 40 minutes, however that's been said all too often this season. 60 minutes and a minimum of 60 minutes of solid hockey wins playoff games. The teams knows that and you could tell that they were happy to win, but frustrated with themselves at the same time. It's time to apply the lessons learned instead of repeating them time and time again.
The Predators next game is Saturday night and it's a big one. The Detroit Red Wings return to Nashville for the third and final time this regular season. 7 pm faceoff at the Bridgestone Arena. It shouldn't take much to get people to this one considering the rivalry. Expect a sellout. Can't find a ticket? Well then tune into FS-TN for the game and be sure to stop by this space later that night after the game's conclusion.
Till next time, take care.
Questions, comments, and criticisms can be sent to [email protected] if you wish to contact me personally.
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