Nashville Predators overcome Chicago Blackhawks 3-2
Marcel Goc scored the lone goal in the shootout, as the Nashville Predators beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2, at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday night.
Jerred Smithson and Shea Weber lit the lamp for the Predators, who have won seven of their last eight games and are ranked first in killing penalties on home ice. They have allowed only four power-play goals on 56 opportunities.
Pekka Rinne stopped 31 shots and won his fifth shootout this season to improve to 16-7 for his career. Joel Ward earned two assists in the win.
Tomas Kopecky and Viktor Stalberg recorded goals for Chicago, while Crawford - coming off straight shutouts - turned aside 24 shots. The Predators had a chance to open the scoring early in the first period when Ward missed
a shot wide on a breakaway for a shorthanded goal.
The Blackhawks got on the board first to take a 1-0 lead in 15th minute of the second period, as Kopecky ripped a wrist shot over Rinne for his eighth goal in the 2010-11 season.
Stalberg doubled the Blackhawks advantage in the fifth minute of the second period. He snapped a wrist shot into the net for his seventh goal this season.
The Blackhawks were aiming for a fourth consecutive victory, but the Predators came into action and dominated the play in the final stanza to notch the win.
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville expressed his disappointment after the game. He said, “We had them right where we wanted them. Obviously, they got a little life off their goal, and the building got loud. They made a bang-bang
play, and the wrong guy shot it. They had a good third period. We should have nailed it. That was a good opportunity for us.”
Smithson staked Nashville on the board midway through the final period. Nick Spaling gave a backhand pass to Smithson in front of the net, who ripped a shot past Crawford to cut the deficit to 2-1. It was the first goal given
up by Crawford in over 176 minutes.
It didn’t take Nashville a long time to tie the game at 2-2. Ward passed the disc over to Ryan Suter, who found Shea Weber alone near the blue line, and chipped the puck to him. Weber banged his powerful slap shot into the net
in the13th minute of the third period.
Smithson praised his team-mate Weber by saying, “Anytime you have a guy with a shot like that, you want to utilise it. You just battle hard and try to win that draw. The way he shoots the puck, anything can happen, and he found
a way to put a goal in.”
Predators’ goaltender Pekka Rinne stopped Jonathan Toews’ shot at the start of overtime and then turned away a Patrick Kane bid. Rinne also denied Patrick Sharp on a breakaway in final seconds of overtime. Sharp had the last
opportunity, but his shot went wide of the net.
An excited Rinne, in a post-match interview, said, “The crowd was going crazy. It was such a good atmosphere going into overtime and the shootout. This time Goc made a big goal in the shootout, and I was able to stop those shooters.
Sometimes, I don’t know, you just have to trust your instincts, and I enjoy those situations.”
Goc then took the first shot in the shootout for the Predators, and slipped the puck underneath Chicago goalie Crawford to score the winning goal, and seal the game 3-2.
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