Nashville Predators win 2-1 against the Carolina Hurricanes
The stage was all set for an intriguing encounter at the RBC Arena in the pre-season game on Friday, September 24th 2010 between the Nashville Predators who were up against a charged up Carolina Hurricanes side - a match that was expected to go
down to the wire.
In a pre-match press conference, Jeff Skinner from the Carolina Hurricanes had already said, “We lack behind the Nashville Predators in the department of power play and we hope that with the hard work we have put in, we improve and it is shown during our
game.”
After a slow start to the game, he teams got into the flow of things. Initially, the moves took time to build with only a few goal scoring chances.
Both teams tried hard to get past the defences but it was not until the 17th minute that the Carolina Hurricanes scored the only goal for the first period. It was a stunning 47 foot shot by Patrick O’Sullivan who was ably assisted by Jeff Skinner.
At the end of the first period, the Nashville Predators came up with five shots but failed to score a goal. On the contrary, the home team managed to score once out of their six chances.
During the break, Nashville Predators Head Coach Barry Tortz regrouped the players which eventually paid off in the end. They not only dominated the second period but carried it on until they scored in the 8th minute from a splendid move by David Legwand
when he scored by a wrap around from 6 feet.
With the momentum on their side, Nashville scored again in the 13th minute through Jordin Tootoo who hit a slap off from 35 feet that found the back of the net.
This effectively put the Nashville Predators in the lead which continued till the end of the period. The Nashville Predators came up with a total of 11 shots out of which they scored on 2 occasions. The Hurricanes, playing in front of their home crowd, only
managed to come up with 6 shots but failed to score.
Before the third period began, the Carolina Hurricanes Head Coach Paul Maurice looked relatively upset with the proceedings.
The Carolina Hurricanes came back all charged up after a pep talk with their coach. Urged and backed by their home crowd, the Hurricanes hit three shots on goal in the early stages of the period. After resisting the aggression coming from the Carolina Hurricanes,
the Nashville Predators changed their formation. This worked wonders as the rest of the half saw them make three shots on target. Not only this, but the Nashville Predators were able to strengthen their defence along with an increase in offensive play. They
came up with seven shots out of which three came in the dying minutes of the match.
The game finally ended at 2-1 in favour of the Nashville Predators who had played an aggressive brand of ice hockey with 23 goal attempts in total. On the other hand, the Carolina Hurricanes managed to convert only one out of their 17 shots on goal.
At the end of the match, Patrick O’Sullivan of the Carolina Hurricanes said, “the key for me when I am competing here is skating and playing at the top. Though we lost but I personally felt better.”
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