Nashville Predators Take Lead in Series 2-1 against Anaheim Ducks in Conference Quarterfinals –NHL Play-offs Update
It was a tie-breaking match on Sunday for the Eastern Conference rivals, Nashville Predators and Anaheim Ducks. After a win-lose situation for both teams in the last two games in Anaheim, the Predators gained the lead in the quarterfinal series after defeating
Anaheim by 4-3 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
Mike Fisher made the tie-breaking goal in the final moments of the game, which gave Nashville’s coach, Barry Trotz, even more of a good reason for acquiring him in the last National Hockey League (NHL) trade deadline of this season.
He was mentioning how much he counted to the team when he termed Fisher’s entry into the franchise as the reason for them making the play-offs as the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference.
"It's always fun when you can contribute", Fisher said. "Obviously a big part of that's my linemates are playing really well and giving me opportunities to score, but overall I think just winning is so much fun. Now we got a lot of work to still do and hopefully
we can keep going".
Fisher has certainly made his presence felt to the entire league. He has become the leading scorer in the current postseason having five points in only their third game of the quarterfinals. Only having five goals in 27 games after he was acquired from Ottawa,
play-offs have seemed to bring out the leader in him.
Nashville adopted a new strategy for playing against Anaheim’s top goalies and that was to shoot the puck whenever you get the chance to. The Predators outshot the Ducks by a huge 37-16 difference throughout the game, which gave them more chances even though
many of them were off target.
Martin Erat and Jordin Tootoo scored 38 seconds apart to take an early 2-0 lead to end the first period in favour of Nashville.
The sold-out Predators’ crowd was thrilled when the second period was coming to a close and their home team was still ahead by two.
That joy of shutting out the visiting team did not last long as Anaheim’s veteran player Teemu Selanne took charge and scored twice within 38 seconds with less than two minutes remaining. He froze the crowd right in their seats when he tied the game without
them even blinking.
Corey Perry assisted both goals of which the first came during a power play when Shane O'Brien was penalised for elbowing.
It was a rough game especially in the second period where a fight broke out between Ducks Captain Ryan Getzlaf and Mike Fisher.
Other than that, Anaheim gave Nashville over eight minutes in penalty time with an added man advantage, but the Predators could not penetrate their goalie Ray Emery who blocked 33 of 37 shots.
Home goalie Pekka Rinne faced a lot less attempts as compared to Emery but still managed to block 13 of a total 16 attempts.
The third period was tough for both teams who were entering tied. David Legwand opened the scoring for Nashville but was replied by Matt Beleskey nearly a minute later. Fisher has the final say midway through the final as he shot it near the post which went
in after hitting Emery’s pads.
Nashville looks to enjoy their next game again at home when they host the Anaheim Ducks for game 4 of the conference quarterfinals on Wednesday.
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