The Penguins came out strong, and got an advantage when a sequence of desperate defensive plays culminated in Luke Schenn sending the puck over the glass. Some great work on the power play by Erik Karlsson appeared to set the Penguins up for the game’s first goal, but Andrew Brunette challenged quickly and it was determined that Michael Bunting, the apparent goalscorer, had been standing on Juuse Saros’s stick at the time.
Outrage at the no-goal broke out in PPG Paints Arena, but was quelled when Sidney Crosby pounced on a rebound and got the goal right back, at 7:02 of the first. The Penguins continued to swarm, making Saros work for every save and giving the Preds no quarter at all.
Over halfway through the period the Preds finally made their way into the offensive zone and made Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic to have to make some saves of his own. It didn’t last long, though, and the Penguins came back into the Nashville end, with some sharp passing all over the zone and a great screen the Preds didn’t clear away from in front of Saros ending with a gorgeous goal from Karlsson at 13:50.
Colton Sissons then took a tripping penalty.
This time, the Predators actually managed to kill it off–after another successful goalie interference challenge. With one second remaining in the penalty, the puck crossed the line while Lars Eller had backed into Saros and kept him from moving. Saros alerted Roman Josi right away, Josi spoke to the bench, and Brunette got the goal overturned.
Again the crowd reacted with outrage. There was a brief lull where the Preds were able to catch a little bit of their breaths before the Penguins came right back on the attack. A Jeremy Lauzon clear deflected off Lars Eller’s stick and over the glass, and yet again the crowd was furious, this time over the no-penalty. The Preds managed to escape to intermission without giving up another goal…yet.
The second period didn’t start off much better. Kiefer Sherwood had a chance that just grazed Nedeljkovic’s glove before bouncing off the crossbar, and Mark Jankowski and Jason Zucker tried a smart play that earned them some dislike from the Penguins on the ice, but the Preds weren’t able to sustain the pressure and Saros was once again called on to cover for his teammates.
Still, from there, the Preds managed to start building, and Gustav Nyquist eventually finished off a play to get Nashville on the board at 7:24. However, the Penguins got it right back less than a minute later, when Josi was hurt blocking a shot and Reilly Smith took advantage of the defensive lapse that resulted. Play seesawed furiously back and forth, with Jankowski and Pierre-Oliver Joseph taking simultaneous seats for roughing at 13:36.
Filip Forsberg added his 48th of the season at 17:36, but Zucker almost immediately took a penalty as the Preds tried to build on that. Nashville got it killed off, despite some fantastic attempts by the Penguins, but another strong Penguins push near the start of the third increased the Pittsburgh lead again, 4-2 at 2:42.
A whistle during a drawn-out scrum in front of Nedeljkovic came just in time to keep it from counting when Lauzon got the puck across the goal line. An odd situation followed when Zucker was given a misconduct penalty at 6:31, but the Penguins were not given another power play. Instead, half a minute later, the Preds got their first advantage of the night, when Reilly Smith was called for hooking Forsberg.
The Penguins killed it off smoothly, finishing with a shorthanded chance led by one of their rookie defenders, and then drew a power play of their own as Crosby got tripped. Saros had to make some spectacular saves, but the Preds weren’t able to score again. With Saros pulled, Forsberg made a great save, but again it wasn’t enough.
Despite what we all would have loved to see, the game ended in a loss.