The Predators opened the new era in Smashville at home tonight against the Seattle Kraken – how would the young team bounce back from the loss on Tuesday?
First Period
With the home crowd packing Bridgestone Arena, the Nashville Predators and Seattle Kraken dropped the puck and immediately got physical, leading two double penalties from Will Borgen and Filip Forsberg just 90 seconds into the period. Neither team could get anything going during the 4 on 4, but Seattle led in shots 3-2 after the first five minutes.
Still, the team was encouraging – the Predators were getting settled into the OZ easily, and the passing was much cleaner than the first game. Juuse Saros got tested early, but the Predators defense kept it reasonable. Cody Glass, who was injured last game (but returned late), played like his hair was on fire, registering a couple of high-quality shots, but couldn’t get it in the net.
As the period wound down, the Kraken would turn up the heat again, but despite a ton of attempts, few got on net. Frustration built for the Kraken, and came to a head with 23 seconds remaining, where Brian Dumoulin would get called for slashing Keifer Sherwood, giving Nashville a power play. Tyson Barrie was able to fire a couple of shots before the period ended, but both were blocked and Nashville would head to the locker room with 1:35 left in the power play and an encouraging 15-12 lead in shots, but the score remained tied at zero after twenty.
Second Period
Starting the period with 1:35 left in the Brian Dumoulin penalty, it didn’t take long for the Predators to get handed another chance – Jamie Oleksiak was called for delay of game just seven seconds in. Unfortunately for the Predators, they could only manage a couple of shots with the two-man advantage – and would not get a shot on goal for another six minutes into the period.
With Seattle killing both penalties, the Kraken took that momentum and carried the next few minutes of play until Cody Glass got a slashing call at 11:05. With Seattle getting their first power play, it seemed as if Nashville was on their heels.
After two quick shots from Andre Burakovsky and Jordan Eberle, the Predators responded. Jeremy Lauzon and Ryan O’Reilly continued to play excellent hockey and kept the Kraken out of the offensive zone so well that the two registered three shorthanded shots against Seattle before Colton Sissons on a semi-breakaway fought off a defender to get two shots on Philip Grubauer, and the second one got home – the Predators now had the 1-0 lead after the shorthanded goal.
Shortly after the goal, both Ryan O’Reilly and Roman Josi would get excellent chances (still shorthanded) and they killed the penalty – all while outshooting the Kraken 4 to 2. From that point on, the rest of the period was all Nashville. First, Vince Dunn got caught cross-checking Filip Forsberg, picking up Seattle’s fourth penalty of the evening, helping the Predators offense really explode against Seattle. But even more impressive? The shot by Burakovsky at 10:53 was the final Seattle shot of the period – the Predators would hold the Kraken without a single shot on goal the rest of the 2nd period, outshooting them 9-0 in the second half of the period. With momentum on their side, the Predators headed to the locker room with both the lead as well as a ton of momentum.
Third Period
The Predators weren’t able to keep that momentum, as the start of the third period was all Kraken. While it took some time for Seattle to get a shot on Juuse Saros, Nashville had no answer for Seattle before a Colton Sissons high-sticking penalty was called.
On the penalty kill, it was the Ryan McDonaugh show as he made three huge blocks in the final seconds of the penalty, and the Predators would escape unscathed, despite not registering a shot yet in the period.
It didn’t get much better as the Predators would go the first 10 minutes of the period without a shot due to Seattle trying to make up the deficit. But that first shot was a doozy. With a delayed penalty and Juuse Saros on the bench, Adam Larsson was too busy hitting Forsberg’s stick instead of watching the puck and Gustav Nyquist is able to get a shot past Grubauer, giving the Predators a 2-0 lead with 9:50 left.
With a solid two goal lead, Nashville kept up their defense and Seattle would struggle to maintain long possessions in the Predators’ end, with one series ending with a Luke Evangelista breakaway that he wasn’t able to convert.
With five minutes remaining in the game, the Kraken would start to push even harder, but Nashville would continue to turn them away and forecheck hard, keeping Seattle from the OZ. Philip Grubauer would look to the bench several times, but the Predators defense kept pressuring, with Filip Forsberg getting a shot on him and keeping him in the net until a stoppage with 3:31 left.
Grubauer stayed on the bench coming out of the timeout, and after a Kraken hit the crossbar, Yakov Trenin would get a shot at the empty net, but he couldn’t convert. No worries though, as Juuso Parssinen wouldn’t miss and with 1:40 left, the Predators would get the empty-net goal and Nashville’s 3-0 lead would stay safe for the final 100 seconds, and the Predators opened the Andrew Brunette era at home with a resounding 3-0 victory over the Seattle Kraken behind an impressive 23-save shutout from Juuse Saros.
Three Stars of the Game
Third Star: Gustav Nyquist (1G)
Second Star: Colton Sissons (1G)
First Star: Juuse Saros – 23/23 saves, and most importantly, NO GOALS