Nashville looked to continue its winning ways in a return home, and succeeded. Juuse Saros’s win moved him to a tie on the franchise leaderboard with Tomáš Vokoun, with 161 each.
The Preds missed a golden early opportunity when Colton Sissons couldn’t put a rebound in past Charlie Lindgren, out of position and on his back. They got a power play shortly after, though, as Trevor van Riemsdyk cleared the puck over the glass. It worked out for them, as this time Sissons was able to tip a Roman Josi shot-pass and get the Preds on the board.
Nashville continued to press before easing up as the period continued, with Washington taking the momentum into the second period. A pair of early Nashville penalties–tripping from Cole Smith and then an iffy high-sticking call on Ryan McDonagh while the Preds were already shorthanded–set the Caps up for their first goal, as Saros made a great save on Alex Ovechkin but wasn’t able to manage the follow-up attempt, put into the net by TJ Oshie.
The Caps continued to press, putting shot after shot on Saros and settling into the Preds’ zone for an extended possession. Phil Tomasino managed to escape the zone near the end of an agonizingly long shift for the Preds skaters on the ice and scored on a breakaway, restoring the Preds’ lead at 13:26.
Washington made numerous attempts to get the lead back as the period wound down, but the Preds made it to intermission unscathed. Ovechkin took an early penalty in the third, and while the Preds weren’t able to score (or get much offense going) on the power play, Yakov Trenin found the puck in his skates just after Ovechkin emerged from the box and put it past Lindgren.
Cole Smith tripped John Carlson moments after the goal, but the refs missed the call–despite Carlson seeming to be injured on the play–and the game continued at 5v5, briefly. The expected makeup call wasn’t even needed, as Alex Carrier slashed at Oshie’s hands shortly after and headed off to the sin bin. The Preds were able to kill the penalty, then buckled in to endure the rest of the period.
With around three minutes to go, Lindgren was pulled for the extra attacker, and with 2:37 left in regulation Cody Glass tripped Evgeny Kuznetsov, allowing the Caps another two-skater advantage. The Preds were able to kill the penalty off, and Glass redeemed himself by getting hauled down on the way to the empty net–drawing a penalty, but not getting awarded a goal.
Dylan Strome then took an additional whack at Glass as he lay on the ice; he was clearly in some discomfort, and is hopefully all right. Tommy Novak got dumped to the ice as the buzzer sounded on the Preds’ 3-1 win, causing a post-whistle ruckus that was broken up before any additional discipline had to be assessed.