Nashville Predators Hunt Down the Vancouver Canucks
Looks like all the replacement defensemen from local city teams for Vancouver weren’t able to stop the onslaught from the Nashville Predators who performed spectacularly at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee beating the Canucks 3-1.
The top team of the NHL couldn’t handle the offensive pressure by the Predators’ Marcel Goc, Steve Sullivan, David Legwand, Mike Fisher and Nick Spaling.
Vancouver went into the game previously winning over the Minnesota Wild 4-1, but remained blocked throughout the game in their final away game before returning home this month. Nashville worked hard in this match; players had taken pucks to their face before
scoring and didn’t slow down after that.
Mike Fisher who last week was traded to the Predators from the Ottawa Senators took a puck to his right cheek at the start of the first, but came back moments later from the locker rooms with stitches. Marcel Goc was also out of the game during the start
of the second period with a yet unknown upper-body injury and is out indefinitely.
Late in the second period http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/players/profile?playerId=532 tried passing to Sullivan who was positioned in the left circle, just waiting to take a shot, but unfortunately it deflected off another players stick and landed directly on his face. Falling down, it was a scary moment for all teammates to
see their fellow player down, but luckily he got back up and slowly skated off the ice. He didn’t return.
This fired up the Predators, after a drought in the first; Martin Erat scored his tenth of the season with a little over 5 minutes remaining in the second. A sluggish looking Daniel Sedin maybe because they were playing their fourth game in three nights
snapped the Predators perfect penalty kill and responded with a shot during power play nearly 3 minutes later, but were bedazzled within 7 seconds when Nick Sapling and Mike Fisher showed no mercy to the Canucks with successive goals within 49 seconds making
it 3-1 at the end of the second 20 minutes.
The Canucks couldn’t penetrate Nashville’s defence throughout the final period, leaving the score settled at the end, making the meetings of the two teams even when the Predators fell to the Canucks in late last month.
Vancouver had more shot attempts than there opposition, but Pekka Rinne was too focused, deflecting 35 out of 36 shots while counterpart Roberto Luongo made only 23 out of the fierce 26. Sea Weber, Nashville captain has maintained an amazing point record,
making 21 points in his last 22 games. They remain strong sitting at 4th in the Western Conference with 70 points while Vancouver is still in overwhelming majority with 83.
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