Here’s how the Predators climbed back into the series against the Hurricanes in 2OT
Nashville Predators coach John Hynes had a simple game plan Friday: “Knock the door down.”
That is, win a game. Find a way to beat the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Get back in the series.
The Preds did that, but it took a while.
Playing before a home crowd of 12,135 at Bridgestone Arena, Nashville emerged with a 5-4 victory in double overtime after dropping the first two games of the series in Raleigh.
“It was nice that we found a way to win and get ourselves back into the series here,” Hynes said.
Matt Duchene had the winning goal, getting past defenseman Jake Bean for the shot at 14:54 of the second OT, and the Preds then staged their own postgame celebration at center ice.
Canes head coach Rod Brind’Amour was happy with his team’s effort, just not the result — nor the officiating.
“We played our butts off, played great, played hard,” Brind’Amour said. “We’re playing a great team, and to me, we’re in a battle. Nashville’s a great team, but we’re also fighting the refs. That’s plain and simple. You can’t tell me, two games in a row, we get seven, eight penalties and they get three? When the game’s this even? That’s ... that’s not right.”
Carolina is now 16-of-17 on the penalty kill over three games, allowing just one 3-on-5 goal in Game 3 Friday. The Hurricanes have been shorthanded seven times in each of the past two games.
How it got to overtime
Canes defenseman Brett Pesce tied it 4-4 with a snipe of a shot with 3:21 left in regulation — his first career playoff strike. Pesce nearly scored on a shot that goalie Juuse Saros barely kept out of the net, then took a pass from Teuvo Teravainen and unloaded again from the top of the left circle.
“(Pesce) has been an absolute animal all year,” Canes captain Jordan Staal said. “With the big guy out, man has he stepped up and played well. Another great game by him.“
Canes goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, starting for the third straight game, made a big stop on a Colton Sissons shot with 42 seconds left in regulation.
The Preds had taken a 4-3 lead on Ryan Johansen’s goal at 5:01 of the third period. Nashville tied the score 3-3 on Mikael Granlund’s 5-on-3 power-play goal at 14:42 of the second period — the first power-play goal Carolina has allowed in the series.
The Canes again played without injured defenseman Jaccob Slavin, giving Max Lajoie his first start with Carolina. They also played a strong, sound road game in a super-charged atmosphere.
Sebastian Aho had a goal and two assists for the Canes, the Central Division champions. Jordan Staal and Vincent Trocheck scored in the second period, Trocheck on a power play.
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Defenseman Ryan Ellis had a goal and assist for the Preds, who finished fourth in the Central.
The Canes trailed 2-1 after the first period — the Preds’ Filip Forsberg scoring with 24.5 seconds left — but took the lead in the second. Jordan Staal scored on a breakaway to tie it, and Vincent Trocheck’s power-play score, his first career playoff goal, on a tight-angled shot had the Canes in the lead.
“That’s playoff hockey,” Staal said. “It was a grind of a game. That’s what you want to play. I thought the boys battled hard. We came out on the wrong side of this one, but we’re going to come back with an even better effort next game.”
Nedeljkovic stopped Erik Haula on a shorthanded breakaway when it was 2-2. But Granlund knocked in a loose puck on the 5-on-3, and Johansen scored on a deflection of an Ellis shot after the Canes iced the puck and the Preds then won a faceoff in the Canes zone.
Preds goalie Juuse Saros had Aho score against him in the first on a shot that deflected off Preds defenseman Roman Josi. Staal beat Saros with a forehand and Trocheck with a ridiculously tough shot to Saros’ right, the puck barely squeezing past Saros’ head.
There’s not much turnaround time. Game 4 will have a 2:30 p.m. ET start Sunday.
“We’re playing against the same team, and they’ve played the same amount of minutes that we did, so it is what it is. I think our group is going to rebound,” Staal said.
They knew what was coming
The Hurricanes knew what to expect: an all-out war.
The Predators were combative and physical while losing the first two games of the first-round playoff series in PNC Arena At home at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, being urged on by a large home crowd, they were amped up even higher.
The Preds were desperate and determined.
“If you’re not bringing intensity. maybe you shouldn’t be out there,” Preds defenseman Matt Benning said Friday after the morning skate.
Those weren’t fighting words, but Benning was in a fight with the Canes’ Jordan Martinook in Game 2. Asked Friday about the scuffle with Martinook and the punches thrown, he said, “It’s the playoffs.”
No Slavin again
The Canes were again without defenseman Jaccob Slavin, who missed Game 2 with a lower-body injury that has been nagging him. Max Lajoie drew into the lineup and made his Hurricanes debut.
“It’s definitely a hole in our lineup, and we all have to as a team try to play better to fill that,” defenseman Dougie Hamilton said Friday of Slavin’s situation, which apparently will be an ongoing concern for Carolina in the playoffs.
Plenty of hits
The PNC Arena stat crew had the Canes and Preds combining for 198 hits in the first two games. Friday at Bridgestone? Only 65. But they were hard.
“The discipline part is where you’ve got to be careful,” Brind’Amour said. “You just can’t get caught in they give you a shot and you give one back, because you don’t know how it’s going to get called. You’ve got to take that out of it. That’s where it gets hard because guys are so emotional.”
The Canes were 6-for-7 in Game 3 on the penalty kill, 7-for-7 in Game 2 and they are 16-for-17 in the series and have generated a number of shorthanded chances. They also scored on the power play in Game 2 and have had the edge in special teams.
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 6:29 PM with the headline "Here’s how the Predators climbed back into the series against the Hurricanes in 2OT."
