Jaccob Slavin was out for the second game in a row and as a result, Max Lajoie played in his first NHL playoff game and first game with the Hurricanes, rather than Jake Gardiner. I actually thought Gardiner had played pretty well in a reduced role in Game 2 but regardless, Lajoie took a spot on the bottom pairing.
The game started out with a pretty even first period. Ryan Ellis threw the puck on net through a screen to open the scoring a few minutes into the game, before Sebastian Aho tied the game later in the period on a similarly odd play. Filip Forsberg would give Predators the lead going into the intermission, however, making a great move to beat Alex Nedeljkovic on a breakaway.
The Hurricanes were able to tie it up early in the second period, with Jordan Staal beating Juuse Saros on a breakaway. Vincent Trocheck would get Carolina the lead about halfway through the period with a ridiculous shot from the side of the net, but Mikael Granlund buried a loose puck on a power play only two minutes later to tie it up once again.
In the third period, Ryan Johansen managed to tip in a point shot to get Nashville their lead back. Despite Nashville outplaying Carolina for parts of the third period, the Hurricanes tied the game with just over three minutes to go, off a point shot from Brett Pesce.
The game went to overtime, where the teams traded some decent chances, but the game remained tied. The contest continued into a second overtime, where chances became fewer and further between. However, with about five minutes to go in the second overtime period, Matt Duchene got around Jake Bean for a loose puck to get in alone and put it past Nedeljkovic for the win.
Nashville did a much better job of getting traffic in front of the net in Game 3. Going forward, Carolina’s forwards will have to try getting in the way of some more point shots because the Predators found success getting the puck to the net from the point and betting on a screen or deflection.
The Predators did outplay Carolina through much of the game, especially in regulation and the Hurricanes couldn’t get much going in the second overtime period. It wasn’t a poor effort from Carolina overall but Nashville deserved the win.
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Who would you prefer to be in the lineup with Jaccob Slavin injured?
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