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Nashville Predators fire franchise-record 55 shots in 2-0 win over Montreal

With his father in attendance looking on, Steve Sullivan scored twice and Pekka Rinne made 20 saves to earn his 2nd shutout for Nashville as they dominated the Montreal Canadiens Saturday night at the Sommet Center. In their first home game in over two weeks, the Predators set a franchise record with 55 team shots, led by Sullivan's 11. J.P. Dumont, Shea Weber, and Jason Arnott all picked up one assist each.

After tonight's win, the Predators have now won 6 of their last 8 games.

You can click through the picture above to the photo gallery from tonight's game, and following the jump, there's video highlights, the recap, and advanced even strength statistics...

Star-divide

The Preds carried the play right from the start, racking up a 24-4 Shots On Goal advantage by the end of the first, which included Steve Sullivan's 3rd goal of the season. Those 24 shots represented a franchise record for a single period, eclipsing the previous best (23) set on February 28, 2004 in the 2nd period of a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers.

Heading into this game with a 6.8% Shooting Percentage in 5-on-5 play, the Predators already have difficulty turning shots into goals (that figure is 6th-worst in the NHL). Thursday night in St. Louis, despite beating the Blues 3-1, it was opposing goaltender Chris Mason who was voted the first star.

Preds fans would probably prefer that Nashville make opposing goalies look like the goat of the game, not the hero.

That said, it was very encouraging to see the consistent effort given across the entire Predators lineup; this wasn't a case of just one or two lines playing well. No matter who was out there, the play kept heading deep into the Montreal zone. While it got nerve-wracking watching the team take only a 1-0 lead into the 3rd period, a 5-on-3 power play proved the cure for the goal-scoring ills.

A long blast by Shea Weber led to a rebound that Sullivan fired back behind Price to put the Preds up 2-0 with just minutes left in the game, and from there, it was a matter of denying the Canadiens proper entry into the zone and perhaps trying to get Sully the hat trick.

Looking at the advanced even-strength statistics below, it was an absurdly good night across the board; everyone in the lineup had positive Shots On Goal +/- and Corsi values, and when you bring power play performance into the mix, all but one player (Ryan Suter) ended up with a shot on net tonight.

The Preds will want to bottle up some of that energy for Tuesday night, when the San Jose Sharks come to town.

 Even Strength Individual Totals Team Totals While Player Is On Ice
 Player Pos EV TOI Shots Shts Blkd Missed Shts Blocks SOG For SOG Ag SOG +/- Tot SF Tot SA Corsi
 Jason Arnott C 14:55 2 1 1 0 13 4 9 18 8 10
 Steve Sullivan L 13:44 7 0 0 0 12 5 7 13 9 4
 Jean-Pierre Dumont R 13:31 0 0 0 0 13 6 7 16 10 6
 David Legwand C 14:25 4 1 0 0 12 5 7 20 6 14
 Jerred Smithson R 12:49 1 0 1 1 10 5 5 17 6 11
 Joel Ward R 13:10 1 1 2 0 11 4 7 18 4 14
 Martin Erat R 8:16 3 0 0 0 8 0 8 14 7 7
 Michael Santorelli C 7:08 3 0 0 0 9 0 9 13 5 8
 Patric Hornqvist R 7:35 1 2 1 0 9 0 9 14 4 10
 Marcel Goc C 8:57 2 1 0 1 10 7 3 14 10 4
 Andreas Thuresson R 10:50 4 2 0 1 10 6 4 16 12 4
 Jordin Tootoo R 11:22 2 0 3 0 13 6 7 20 9 11
 Shea Weber D 14:00 1 1 1 0 9 5 4 14 10 4
 Ryan Suter D 12:59 0 0 0 0 8 5 3 12 8 4
 Kevin Klein D 18:26 3 0 0 1 22 5 17 30 13 17
 Francis Bouillon D 15:09 1 0 0 1 15 5 10 19 11 8
 Dan Hamhuis D 16:21 4 0 1 2 19 6 13 31 9 22
 Cody Franson D 14:07 3 1 1 1 13 6 7 22 9 13
Poll
Who is your Predator of the Game?
Steve Sullivan, 2 goals on 11 shots
98 votes
Pekka Rinne, 20 saves & shutout
13 votes

111 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  Comment 5 comments |

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The Preds set TWO records in the Sommet tonight

One was for SOG (55), the other was for making me yell, “Come ON! Bury the freakin’ puck!” (53) But seriously, as much as I want to give the guys crap over 55 shots and only 2 goals, they played incredible tonight. It was a great night of hockey. If we keep playing like this we can do some serious damage this season.

"Get to the Choppa!"

by PredHead on Nov 15, 2009 12:19 AM EST reply actions   1 recs

Not to nitpick, but...

the scoreboard should have read 3-0. The call against Arnott and the cancelled goal in the second period were awful officiating.

by Hockey Hillbilly on Nov 15, 2009 11:45 AM EST reply actions  

highlights

now i can say i’ve watched hockey highlights in French. Not that it was a goal of mine or anything, but that’s what I had to do. Good win, but it would have been nice to bury a few more of those shots.

TN Sports fan in Hoosier Country....

by Evanbio on Nov 16, 2009 12:51 PM EST reply actions  

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