The Nashville Predators won a 4-3 game over the Colorado Avalanche with two last minute goals, and these three keys helped the Predators get a statement Central Division win.
It was a shocking end to Monday's game at Bridgestone Arena as the Nashville Predators staged a record setting comeback by scoring two goals sixteen seconds apart in the final minute of the game. This was the first time in franchise history the team scored a game tying and a game winning goal in the final minute of regulation.
There was a lot to like about Nashville's game against arguably one of the best team in the NHL. Getting the win took a massive effort by the Predators, and here are three key takeaways.
Filip Forsberg is on his game.
It was another impressive game by Filip Forsberg who scored Nashville's first goal in the last minute of the first period. Forsberg also scored the game tying goal in the final minute of the game. In his last five games, Forsberg has recorded seven goals and nine points. To start the season, Forsberg was leading the team in expected goals for, but recently those expectations have become reality.
The top line of Forsberg, Ryan O'Reilly, and Gustav Nyquist have been very productive recently scoring a combined nine goals and 21 points in their last five games.
"Our line has been playing really well," Forsberg said last week. "Obviously me and Factor [Ryan O'Reilly] have been playing really well together since the start of training camp, and then the last five, six games Gus has come in and brought a lot of speed, a lot of energy, a lot of those really good puck touches. I think we all complement each other really well."
Third Period Push
This was one of Nashville's best sixty minute efforts so far this season, but the effort by the team in the third period showed the resiliency that head coach Andrew Brunette has been looking for. Despite being down a goal at the start of the period, the team stuck with their game and didn't alter what they were doing.
"I think in a lot of these games we got away from the game, where we didn't manage the game, where we try to score two goals in the next shift," Brunette said after Monday night's win. "I thought the mindset was like there's a lot of time, let's just keep doing the right things. We're going to get rewarded. We're going to get our look and when we get our look, take advantage of it."
"The growth — we just kept coming at them. Maybe earlier we would have held our breath a little bit. I'm proud of the resilience they showed to stick to the game plan for sixty against one of the best teams in the league."
The players, too, felt like they played a complete game and stuck to what they needed to do against a good Colorado team especially in the third period in which the Preds outshot the Avs 16-4.
Contain Colorado's Best Weapons
It is no easy task to keep players like Nathan MacKinnon, Valeri Nichushkin, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar from scoring, but the Preds did a good job of containing the damage those players could do. Nichushkin scored the only power play goal of the night, but MacKinnon and Makar only recorded assists while Mikko Rantanen recorded neither a goal nor assist in his nearly 26 minutes of ice time.
Nashville held the Avalanche to 28 shots on goal which is no easy task as the Avs are one of the top teams in shots per game, averaging 34.21 before Monday's contest. Defensemen Jeremy Lauzon and Alexandre Carrier went head to head against some of the Av's top offensive players Monday night, and Brunette was pleased with what he saw from their game.
"I thought he [Lauzon] competed really hard. I thought he was a hard player to play against," Brunette said. "I thought he was in their face, and he's physical. He did an unbelievable job — his and Carsy [Carrier] — against arguably one of the best players in the league."
The Predators don't have much time to savor the win before getting right back to work. Nashville will face-off against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday at home.
"We can't get too much ahead of ourselves here," Gustav Nyquist said. "We got another big test against Calgary who we owe one to I think from the last game,"
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