The Preds were back in action after the Christmas break tonight, but without the results they wanted.
Carolina opened the game with a power-play opportunity when Jeremy Lauzon took a tripping penalty less than a minute in. The Preds’ penalty kill was up to the task, and shortly after they got a look on the power play of their own when Sebastian Aho tripped Gustav Nyquist. Despite a flurry of chances, Canes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov had the saves, and the teams returned to five a side.
Cody Glass took an offensive zone penalty, and the refs missed a chance to even it out when Cole Smith was high-sticked early on in the penalty kill. Aho scored on the Canes’ second power play of the night, with a shot that deflected in off of Luke Schenn. The Preds tried to respond, but Smith was whistled for interference, giving the Canes their third power play of the period.
Yet again, they scored, with the tally this time going to Brent Burns. The Preds managed to avoid a couple of too-many-men penalties by the skin of their teeth, and also managed to avoid giving up another goal, but did not manage to score themselves–despite a late attempt by Filip Forsberg–before the buzzer sounded.
Nashville opened the second period with a goal from Nyquist, who put in a Ryan O’Reilly rebound before getting taken down to the ice by Andrei Svechnikov. He was helped off the ice by Preds staff and the referees reviewed an unspecified five-minute penalty on Svechnikov, which was rescinded entirely after the review.
The Preds’ attempted response fizzled, and Svechnikov made it 3-1 moments later. Hostilities were on the verge of breaking out, with the Preds angry and frustrated, but Nashville buckled down to try to win the game again. Glass drew a penalty–got hauled down by Jalen Chatfield–and managed to keep hold of the puck, forcing Kochetkov to make the save. O’Reilly scored almost right off the bat on the power play, making it 3-2 at 5:08.
Burns was then whistled for high-sticking, but despite some great chances, the Preds weren’t able to score again, and with four seconds left in the power play Glass took another penalty during a puck battle with Brady Skjei. The Preds got the penalty killed off, but gave up another goal a few minutes later when Jesper Fast–who’d been shoved back into Juuse Saros by Glass–blocked Saros’s movement with his stick.
Meanwhile, Dante Fabbro, who’d been injured while blocking a shot a second earlier, also had to be helped off the ice. Fortunately for both him and the Preds, Nyquist had just returned to the bench; my guess is that he was pulled for further checking and cleared tests after spending some time in the quiet room.
Aho rang iron just after that, almost but not quite extending the Canes’ lead, and O’Reilly and Roman Josi counterattacked. Jesperi Kotkaniemi tripped Phil Tomasino and the Preds headed back to the power play. Over eight and a half minutes remained in the second period.
Juuso Pärssinen almost scored a fantastic goal, after some really beautiful stickhandling through the offensive zone, but Kochetkov managed to get the back of his leg on the puck and make the save. Just a moment later, Pärssinen took a puck to the side of the head and the Preds’ trainer yet again had to come out to check on one of his players. Pärssinen was, at least, eventually able to skate off on his own, but remained under observation on the bench.
Luke Evangelista was then called for a double minor for high-sticking, which was upheld on review. The Hurricanes promptly scored on the first of the power plays, with 2:06 remaining in the period and the second minor still to go. While the Preds were able to kill the second penalty off, they started the third with Yaroslav Askarov in net.
The goalie swap did not help the Preds much, as the Canes were able to get shot after shot on him without much pushback from Nashville. With 5:19 remaining in the period, Andrew Brunette pulled Askarov for the extra skater, but the Preds weren’t able to close the gap. The Canes got a few good looks, including a Jordan Martinook shot that hit both posts and went out, and the Preds eventually put Askarov back in as the period wound down.