Phil Tomasino scored his first goal since being recalled while Ryan Johansen left the game with an injury, and it took extra time for the Nashville Predators to defeat Elias Pettersson and the Vancouver Canucks.
The Nashville Predators welcome the 22-30-4 Vancouver Canucks to Bridgestone Arena tonight. The Preds took the ice in desperate need of points to climb back into the wildcard conversation.
Ahead of tonight's game John Hynes tinkered with the forward lines just a bit.
Elias Pettersson entered tonight's game with eleven points in his last five games while Luke Schenn was held out for the Canucks due to trade reasons. Head coach Rick Tocchet started Collin Delia in net.
Quick Game Recap
The first period kicked off with an early goal scored by Cole Smith at 4:38. Vancouver challenged the goal for offside, but in a very close call the goal stood and the Predators went on the power play due to the unsuccessful challenge. Despite Vancouver's struggling penalty kill, Nashville couldn't capitalize on the man advantage.
Dante Fabbro and Roman Josi each served time in the penalty box for hooking and interference respectively later in the first. Vancouver's power play threatened but didn't get a puck past Saros, and the opening period ended with the Canucks leading 13-8 in shots but the Predators up 1-0 on the scoreboard.
The second period started with shaky play by the Predators, but a tripping call on Vancouver gave Nashville a power play at 6:23. The first unit didn't have much success, but the second unit came on and won the face off in the neutral zone. Jusso Pärssinen brought the puck in and passed it to a streaking Phil Tomasino who scored his first goal of the season at 7:57 on the man advantage.
Just under five minutes later, the Canucks caught the Predators with a quick stretch pass that found an open Andrei Kuzmenko. Kuzmenko sent the puck past Saros to make the score 2-1. Dante Fabbro headed back to the box in the middle period for a hold on Conor Garland, and the Canucks power play, which is executing superbly since the All Star break, scored as the puck slowly leaked under Saros to tie the game at 19:38. Just when it looked like the teams would head into the second intermission with a tie score, the Predators won the ensuing faceoff, drove to the net, and Nino Niederreiter scooped the puck past Delia to give Nashville the lead back with just :10 seconds left in the second.
The third period went back and forth through the first seven minutes. A turnover in the defensive zone by the Canucks gave Cody Glass several chances on net, and Mikael Granlund cleaned up a rebound to give Nashville a two goal lead back. As the period would down, the Canucks pulled the goaltender and scored on a tip in shot with just over a minute remaining. As time wound down J.T. Miller connected with a speeding Kuzmenko who tipped another puck past Juuse Saros to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Neither team could capitalize on overtime chances, even when Cody Glass drew a penalty late to give Nashville an extra attacker. Matt Duchene connected on his shootout opportunity, and Juuse Saros stopped all three shots he faced to give Nashville the 5-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Game Notes
1. Let's hear it for the boys. Jusso Pärssinen collected two assists, Phil Tomasino scored his first goal since being recalled, Cole Smith opened the scoring and played an aggressive game, and Tommy Novak and Cody Glass both earned assists as well. The youth came to play tonight.
2. Ryan Johansen left the game due to injury and did not return. It appears Johansen was cut by somewhere on his leg/ankle after getting tangled up with Quinn Hughes. Joey had to be helped down the tunnel by the medical staff. An injury to Joey - especially with Forsberg still out of the lineup - could have serious implications in the next few games.
3. Nashville got two points, but it wasn't pretty. The two points are critical if the Preds hope to get back in the playoff conversation, but the game they played tonight wouldn't win any postseason matchups. The team can play better than they showed tonight and they must if they want to be taken seriously down the stretch.