Nashville Predators' Penalty-Kill Perfection At Home Ends In Controversy

Oct 26, 2025; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Nashville Predators center Jonathan Marchessault (81) skates with the puck as Dallas Stars defenseman Thomas Harley (55) defends during the third period at Bridgestone Arena. Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Prior to Sunday evening’s game against the Dallas Stars at Bridgestone Arena,the Nashville Predators had yet to allow a power-play goal at home by an opponent. On the whole, their penalty-kill unit was at a scorching 90.3% (3-of-31), good for fourth in the NHL.

Heading into the third period against the Stars, that home streak of perfection remained intact. Then, one controversial no-call changed everything.

At 10:45 of the third period, Preds defenseman Nicolas Hague was called for delay of game after the puck went over the glass. About 15 seconds into the power play, Stars’ forward Tyler Seguin got his stick lodged into Cole Smith’s skates, causing Smith to go sprawling.

Everyone in the arena waited expectantly for the officials to call interference on Seguin.

The call never came, and Dallas took advantage. With the score tied 2-2, Mikko Rantanen netted what turned out to be the game-winner with just one second left on their power play, snapping the Preds’ perfect run of not allowing a goal on the PK at Bridgestone Arena.

Should the call have been made?

Preds head coach Andrew Brunette didn’t mince words after the game.

“That was one that should have been called,” Brunette said. “Especially where we were in the game, how the game was in the balance at that point. It was similar to one called the other way.”

Brunette was likely referring to a play at 13:06 of the first period, when Smith was sent to the box for tripping Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen.

Smith, along with Brunette and the entire Predators bench, begged the officials to make a call on Seguin to no avail, and were furious when it didn’t happen. Even Seguin appeared to thik he was about to head to the box. Instead, he earned a break that ultimately led to Rantanen’s game-winning goal.

It was unfortunate for the Predators their penalty-kill perfection had to end on such a controversial note. The PK unit was successful on its other four opportunities, including a 3-on-5. When Erik Haula went off for holding less than two minutes into the game, the Stars were unable to generate a shot on goal during that power play.

Goaltending has also played a key role in the Preds’ success on the penalty kill this season. Although he didn’t play in Sunday’s game, Juuse Saros came into the day with a .969 save percentage in penalty-kill situations.

Backup Justus Annunen, who stopped 24 of 27 shots in the loss, made several key saves to keep the Stars off the board on their power plays, until the final one.

To be fair, the no-call on Seguin wasn’t the sole factor in the Preds losing on Sunday. After outshooting the Stars 8-5 in the opening period and building a 2-0 lead until midway through the second, they allowed Dallas to take control of the game early in the third period and mount their comeback.

It came down to lack of puck management and not being able to put away a team who had also played the night before but had to travel to Nashville. The Preds ended the game with 16 giveaways to 13 for Dallas.

“I think we wanted to get cute a little bit at the blueline,” Brunette said. “We wanted to play a little slower and we had great success, a lot of shot quantity, puck possession when we did a certain thing… When we did the certain things that played to our identity, I thought we were really good. We kinda dominated stretches of the game where we looked like a team that was really, really dangerous and it just gets away from us a little bit.”

The bottom line: some of the inconsistencies that plagued the Preds during their four-game losing skid cost them on Sunday. One can only speculate on how different things might have been had Seguin been sent to the box.

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