2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series – Nashville Predators win 4-3 against the St. Louis Blues
The 44th game of the NHL Premiere Series saw the Nashville Predators host the St. Louis Blues. The game took place at the Bridgestone Arena in front of around 15,000 fans who came in support of their respective teams. The stage was all set and
this game that took place this Thursday surely displayed as to why NHL is one of the best leagues in the ice hockey world.
1st Period
From the very beginning of the period, the Nashville Predators looked to get hold of the game with the early goal attempts. The chances that they developed were due to the quick and pin point passing they came up with.
The Nashville Predators didn’t let the chances go vain and grabbed every opportunity that could have led to a dangerous attack. The very first attack that they came up with in the 1st minute of the match handed them the lead. The goal was scored
by Marcel Goc, who netted the puck from 23 feet through a wrist off shot.
St. Louis Blues responded to this but they didn’t have the smoothness and the fluency in their movement. Though they got into scoring positions occasionally, they didn’t seem to be working like a single unit. It looked like different players were playing
on the pitch who didn’t know which team they belonged to.
From the defence to the offence was all messed up for the away side. However, the Nashville Predators showed why they were a force in the title reckoning this season as they punished the St. Louis Blues for the weak performance they were putting up. The
Predators scored in the 12th minute to establish a 2 goal lead. Steve Sullivan’s goal from 18 feet put the Predators in a comfortable position.
Though the Nashville Predators dominated play throughout the 1st period, the St. Louis pulled one goal back when some fabulous display of ice hockey was seen by them with the puck netted at the end. The goal was scored by Matt D’Agostini in the
14th minute from a distance of 7 feet by a simple tip in.
The Nashville Predators shut any chances of a St. Louis Blue comeback when they scored once again in the 14th minute right after the Blues goal. Steve Sullivan was again the goal scorer who scored from 35 feet.
The period ended with the Nashville Predators scoring 3 goals out of the 11 goal attempts and the St. Louis Blues scoring once out of the 11 goal attempts.
2nd Period
The 2nd period was no way near the 1st period as it lacked behind in terms of energy level and goals. There were only 2 goals during the course of the period, one in favour of the Nashville Predators and one for the St. Louis Blues.
The first goal of the period was scored by T.J Oshie through a splendid backhand that took the score to 3-2. The Nashville Predators responded in spectacular fashion as they scored in the 17th minute to restore their 2 goal advantage with the
score 4-2.
The period ended with the same score as the Nashville Predators scored once out of the 9 goal attempts they made. St. Louis Blues on the other hand also scored one goal out of the 11 goal attempts.
3rd Period
The 3rd period saw the Nashville Predators adopt defensive mentality after the St. Louis Blues scored in the 5th minute. The score at the time was 4-3 and the away team was hoping to make a comeback. But this was not to be as the Nashville
Predators formed a tough, non-porous and brilliant defence. The defence restrict the St. Louis Blues to making goal attempts from long range.
The defence along with the strategy of the Nashville Predators saw no further goals in the period as they marched on and won their 3rd straight game.
"I was really concerned," Nashville Coach Barry Trotz said. "I saw St. Louis on a lot of films and thought that they had a lot of detail in their game and they were really playing with a lot of pace. It was a great test for us and our guys responded
really well."
"My goal kind of sparked us a little bit and they got one right back," Oshie said.
"One of our key things that we are working on this year is winning the battles every night, and I don't think we did that in the first."
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