Nashville Predators play host to Vancouver Canucks: NHL Play-offs Preview
The third game of the semi-final series in the Western Conference will be hosted by the Nashville Predators at the Bridgestone Arena this Tuesday.
The game is important for the Predators as they look to win the series against the top seed in the Western Conference and make their way into the Conference Finals. The first game saw the Canucks winning 1-0, but the second game proved to be a very close game once again. However, this time the Predators successful scored in the second overtime to win the game 2-1 in the end.
The problems in the Canucks department of offence where they fail to score still continues and from the looks of it they are going to get worse. The reason for this is that the Predators goal-keeper, Pekka Rinne, is only getting better with the passage of time as he has already 61 saves out of the 63 shots fired on his goal in the first two games.
Though the Predators are facing the problem of not being able to score, but this is also a fact that they are have one of the most spectacular goal-keeper. He has surely accommodated the Predators for the mistakes that they have done up front.
The Predators became a part of the longest play-off game in the franchise history in their last game and to win it was all the more special for them. The Canucks were surely left heart-broken after the win as they were in the lead for most of the game.
However, the Predators scored through an unexpected Ryan Suter shot with only 67 seconds left in regulation time to play for. The overtime battle turned out to be one great battle where Rinne did a marvellous job and they won with Matt Halischuk’s goal in overtime.
"I was just trying to get it on net and get a whistle and got a fortunate bounce and went in," Suter said of his shot that turned into the series-saving tally thus far for his Predators.
The Canucks on the other hand have themselves to blame for in the last game due to the fact that they had quite a lot of goal scoring opportunities. However, they failed to score and the game ended with the Canucks being on the losing side.
"You got to look at the positives," Captain Henrik Sedin said following Saturday's game. "We're in the second round, we're tied 1-1 and we got a chance to go down to Nashville and steal a game down there. As a team we're having a tough time getting goals, but that's going to happen."
The third game is important for both teams as the winner of this game would go into the fourth game being the leader and be a step closer to the Conference Finals.
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