The Nashville Predators hosted division rival Minnesota Wild rival on Thursday night looking to build on their momentum gained after Tuesday’s wild comeback win. That momentum would halt quickly as the Wild capitalized on their first power play opportunity.

The Predators would strike back fast with a welcome back goal from Ryan Ellis. Then, the woes for much of the season come back to haunt Nashville. Defensive zone coverage is poor once again as Minnesota scored two from close range to take a 3-1 after the first period.

Rinne isn’t playing at his November pace anymore, so the team is going to have to do some serious adjusting if they want to be successful.

Nashville was able to pull within one a Mike Fisher tapped-in a great feed from James Neal on the man advantage early in the second period. It was tough sledding the rest of the second against Minnesota’s league best GAA of just 1.96. There were chances for the Predators as Nashville took a healthy 26-14 shot advantage into the dressing room.

The final frame of hockey saw the Predators pressing for an equalizer, but Nashville was unable to light the lamp. The Wild finished the game off with an two empty net goals with under a minute to play. A definite missed opportunity to begin a win streak after the great effort on Tuesday as they fall 5-2 to the Wild.

The Predators will host the New York Rangers, and everyone’s favorite draft pick, Jimmy Vesey, on Saturday night.

Random Observations

• It took 30 seconds for a “Josi’s better” chant to break out.
• The Wild are the ultimate bend but don’t break team in their own zone.
• The booing of Suter is surprisingly still going strong.
• At least Nashville avoided going down 3-0 this time.
• The amount of skaters the Preds defense leaves uncovered is appalling .
• Switching up the d-pairs has to be considered at this point.
• Fisher seems to only scores goals within 5 feet of the goal. Go to the net, kids.
• Wild are confident in their defense. Hardly trying to to score here in the third.
• Chris Stewart is a really weird dude.
• This is such a typical Wild-Predators game.

OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game

1. Ryan Ellis- He has looked great in his first two games back from injury. Added a goal to his stat sheet
2. Viktor Ardvidsson- Every game he is making something happen. Great screen in front on Ellis goal.
3. Mike Fisher- One of the few guys on the roster who consistently goes to the net. Got rewarded with a goal tonight.

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