The Predators and Bruins faced off in a taut, low-scoring matchup tonight as the Preds looked to recover from a bad couple of games.
The Preds followed a decent offensive flurry with a drawn penalty, as David Pastrňák headed to the sin bin, but their best player on the power play was Juuse Saros, as the Bruins got multiple good shorthanded looks and smoothly handled the Preds’ attempts. While the Preds recovered once the teams returned to even strength, a Luke Schenn roughing penalty gave the Bruins a power-play opportunity of their own that they did their best not to waste.
While Saros was able to withstand the onslaught, he was peppered with good-quality shots, and the Preds were lucky to make it to the first intermission without giving anything up on the scoreboard. The second period was more of the same, as an early Preds power play generated nothing at all for Nashville and Saros had to finish it up by making instantaneous back-to-back saves against Trent Frederic and Morgan Geekie.
The Preds were able to stabilize after that, slowing play down until they were able to start pushing their way up the ice. Another penalty, as Jake DeBrusk interfered with Kiefer Sherwood, finally saw their power play start clicking, though Linus Ullmark smoothly handled everything Nashville threw at him. The Preds were then able to easily kill off a Cole Smith penalty, holding the Bruins away from the net, and finished the second period strong.
The third period, however, quickly went wrong for the Preds. A decent early start was followed by giving up an extended sequence to the Bruins, and Nashville’s eventual pushback was interrupted by a power play, where the Bruins finally got that shorthanded goal they’d been trying for all game. Brad Marchand made a fantastic play to set up Charlie Coyle, the puck got past Saros at 13:18, and that was it for the Preds.
While Nashville tried hard to strike back, Ullmark remained perfect, and a late goal by Pavel Zacha gave the Bruins an even more insurmountable lead. Pastrňák finished the game off with an empty-netter.
Thursday’s game against the St. Louis Blues looks like it will be a critical one for both teams, and event viewing for the fans.