For the majority of Tuesday night’s game, most Predators fans probably thought the team had the win in the bag; a 2-0 lead, a good-looking power play, a suffocating penalty kill and a goaltender playing lights out. Then, the Calgary scored and gained confidence. Next, the Flames scored again to tie it. Lastly, Calgary scored twice in the shootout to win. It had fans asking, “what just happened?”
Both of Nashville’s goal came in the first period and on the power play. The first was notched by Filip Forsberg, his seventh of the season, and the second by captain Roman Josi. There were many times following that the Predators had an opportunity to add to their lead (two empty nets missed), but they couldn’t convert. Other times, it looked like Calgary would quickly get back into the game, but goaltender Pekka Rinne stood tall. As head coach Peter Laviolette said, “He gave us an opportunity to win.”
The Predators penalty kill also did a tremendous job, killing off all four opportunities for Calgary. For most of the game, Nashville clogged up passing and shooting lanes well, had well timed stick checks and utilized poke checks in the neutral and defensive zones well. On the downside, they just didn’t play defense when their goaltender needed them the most.
Hear from Colton Sissons, Roman Josi and Peter Laviolette following the loss.
