Nashville Predators hold on for 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers
Cody Franson scored a goal in the shootout and picked up two assists to guide the Nashville Predators to a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night.
Alex Sulzer scored a goal and had a helper while Joel Ward netted the other goal for Nashville, who have won three consecutive games. Pekka Rinne started the game between the pipes, turning aside 22 shots.
A dejected Oilers Coach Tom Renney said, “As much as the opponents are really good and most of them are ahead of us in the standings—except one—we tend to beat ourselves. It is tough and it tests your patience and your ability to persevere as a coaching
staff. But it is even tougher for the players because they are working their guts out.”
Taylor Hall and Andrew Cogliano each tallied a goal for Edmonton, who have lost their last five play-offs. Devan Dubnyk stopped 26 shots in the defeat.
"We felt that this was a game we were in for sure," said Cogliano. "We could have had it, there was a good effort out there. But it came down to a shootout and it didn't go our way."
The Predators scored the lone goal in the first period for a 1-0 lead. Sulzer took a pass from Sergei Kostitsyn and fired a one-timer into the net for his first National Hockey League (NHL) goal.
The middle period was goalless, as the two netminders combined for 16 saves.
Edmonton pulled the game even at 1-1 just two minutes into the final stanza. The play was set up by Liam Reddox, who slapped the puck off the boards from the neutral zone to get around his defender. He then chipped the puck in front to Cogliano, who easily
tipped it home.
Nashville regained their one-goal edge 2-1 again on a power-play with six minutes left in the third frame. Sulzer banged a shot in the high slot and Ward redirected it past Dubnyk.
However, the Oilers knotted the game at 2-2 for the second time with nearly four minutes to play in the third period. It started when Dustin Penner threw the puck from the left point to a flying Hall, who took it down low, and buried it over a prone Rinne.
Both teams got a power-play chance in overtime but could not take advantage, as both goalies came up with the nice saves, including one from Rinne's stick on the goal-line as it sat on the ice.
“That was a huge lucky break,” Rinne said. “I dropped my stick and I had no clue where it was and luckily it was on the goal-line and that saved the game for us.”
Although he was happy about the result, Predators Coach Barry Trotz was disappointed at the way his team played. He said, “I didn’t like the way we played. We got through the first period but as the game went on we turned way too many pucks over.”
Finally, the Predators scored the decisive goal of the game in the shootout, as Franson ripped a shot off the right post and into the net to account for the final scoring 3-2. Taylor Hall was the last hope for the Oilers, but Rinne blocked Hall's backhand
shot for the win.
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