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Nashville Predators 3, Anaheim Ducks 2 (SO): Fiala, Turris Score In Shootout Win

Posted on by Chris Brooks

Pretty sure Elton John wrote a song about a game just like this.

Maybe Anaheim was a little sore about that loss back in May, I don’t know, but chippy didn’t even come close to accurately describing the nature of Saturday’s tilt.

Corey Perry stirred things up early, as did Andrew Cogliano. The Ducks outshot Nashville 16-9 in a scoreless first period that saw a little bit of everything except goals.

Kevin Fiala scored the first goal on the power play in the second period, then was immediately jumped by Nick Ritchie from behind to set up another man advantage.

Adam Henrique evened it up nearly five minutes later, making him an immediate contributor since coming over from New Jersey.

Rinne gave up a clean goal to Cam Fowler, but Calle Jarnkrok tied things up with a power play goal and things got a lot louder for a while.

Things went to overtime, where Forsberg got one good chance early…

…and not much else happened.

Fiala and Kyle Turris buried their shootout chances, and all was right with the world.

What a way to start December. Tis the season…

Random Observations

  • McLeod is back in the lineup. Shocking? No, because it’s Anaheim.
  • Newly-acquired Adam Henrique in for the Ducks as well. How long will it take for their ways to be infused into him?
  • Preds spending way too much time in their own end early on.
  • Cogliano went after Forsberg hard after Filip collided with Ryan Miller while driving to the net. Hellos and how-do-you-dos were not exchanged. Somehow, Forsberg got a roughing minor out of it despite being on the receiving end of the business.
  • Pekka’s being all stonewall and stuff, meanwhile P.K. bought what Corey Perry was selling and got a trip to the box for it.
  • This game is kind of like a bad Tuesday at work. Lots of board meetings, people yelling, not a lot getting done and at the end of it, it feels pretty disgusting to a lot of people.
  • Fight card begins with McLeod serving a healthy dose to Manson. It is, however, a pretty good scrap.
  • Beauchemin tried to cheat down on the hard-around and ended up giving Craig Smith a great look on the power play. He had more time than he thought, though, and went wide.
  • Too many chances by the Ducks, but good on the Preds to collapse and help out down low when needed. It’s just happening too often for my liking.
  • Round two on the fight card was a bit of a handicap match where everyone in gold came to support following Blandisi’s boarding on Ekholm.
  • Fiala scores a power play goal, then gets blindsided by Ritchie after the score. Ritchie should have been gone for that. No place for it in the game at all.
  • Ducks level it up on a good passing play ending with Henrique’s equalizer. Naturally, Perry was right in front of Pekka.
  • Bonino centering Fil and Arvy to start the third – no Joey at the moment. Ruh roh, Raggy.
  • Pekka…can’t give that goal up there. Too clean.
  • Hard work and good passing led to Calle’s power play goal.
  • I’ll be darned if the Preds almost yank the lead away right there. A lot of hands went up, but no dice.
  • Major, major swarming by the Preds right now and boy, is this place loud. The Smashville Standing O hath returned.
  • Craig Smith’s shots have a lot more cheese on them these days. It’s really nice to see. /

OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game

  1. Fiala. He took a beating after scoring his goal, but what a goal it was. Shootout goal to get a dose of revenge.
  2. Jarnkrok. Pretty big power play goal when it looked like another third period washout.
  3. Turris. Cold-blooded.

Postgame Reaction

Arvidsson on the intensity against Anaheim:

“It’s a hard team to play. All those West teams are hard to play – they’re big and physical and heavy, so of course we get beaten up more.”

On his role in the marriage proposal:

“It was a fun thing, I feel like. She got very happy and I didn’t stick around for that long, but yeah, it was fun.”

Rinne on playing against the Ducks:

“It gets a little bit nasty at times. But those are fun games. You get ready for those and I feel like since (the 2011 playoffs), we have some history with Anaheim over the years. It’s gotten to a point where they really don’t like us and we really don’t like them. It’s a good setup for a good match.”

On finding out about Arvidsson’s role in the marriage proposal:

“Really? No way. That’s pretty cool. He’s quite a lovebird.”

Jarnkrok on filling in for Johansen on the power play in the third period:

“I played some (on that unit) last year. I’m pretty used to it in that situation, so it’s not that hard to get into.”

Tweets of the Night

Game Extras

Game Video

Talking Points