Things are finally starting to come together for the struggling Preds.
The game started with an early four-on-four as William Carrier and Nick Blankenburg took coincidental holding penalties. The Preds got out to a good start from there, managing to get some extended zone time in the Carolina zone despite the Canes’ usual stifling play, and earned a penalty for it halfway through the period as Jackson Blake hooked Jeremy Lauzon.
While the Preds’ power play was lackluster, with Jordan Staal’s shorthanded shot being the best look of the interval, they got their skates back under them and headed for the offensive zone again. Steven Stamkos finished off a Filip Forsberg play at 13:34 to get the Preds on the board.
A late penalty by Luke Evangelista didn’t slow the Preds down much, as they buckled in after giving up a couple of early looks during the penalty kill and held the Canes off. They couldn’t keep it up for the whole of the second, though; the tide began to turn, with Carolina slowly pushing the Preds out of the offensive zone and then back to their own zone.
The Preds broke out again, though, and forced Dustin Tokarski to make several great saves to keep the Canes’ deficit to one. As the Canes tried to tip the scales back, Jonathan Marchessault scored off a classic pass from Tommy Novak.
Shayne Gostisbehere almost got it right back with a shot that bounced back out off the inside of the post, but the Preds weathered — or minimized — the storm, with some help from Juuse Saros. Dmitry Orlov took a penalty to open the third, and Ryan O’Reilly promptly scored to stretch the Preds’ lead to 3-0.
Again Saros had to make a huge save on a Carolina counterattack, but he did. The Preds — already playing seven defensemen — then lost Zach L’Heureux and Michael McCarron to puck impacts in rapid succession, with L’Heureux taking a shot to the side of the knee and struggling off the ice and McCarron having one ski-ramp up under his visor to hit him square in the face. L’Heureux stayed on the bench, but McCarron headed straight down the tunnel.
Mark Jankowski gave the Preds a little more cushion as he scored to put them up by four, playing with Colton Sissons on an improvised line. They needed that cushion, though, as Jordan Staal then pinballed a behind-the-net pass off of Saros’s glove to get the Canes on the board, 4-1 at 4:37. Right after that, Sebastian Aho made it 4-2 at 5:17.
Nashville began to flounder. The Hurricanes settled back in to their usual powerful game, stifling the Preds offensively and hemming them in defensively, as the crowd tried to get a “Let’s go, Predators!” chant going to rally the team.
With just under four minutes left, and Saros already working hard, the Canes pulled Tokarski for the extra attacker. The besieged Preds managed to get a break when Forsberg blocked a shot, then took one of his own at the empty net. It missed, but Marchessault had already broken up ice and collected the shot as it bounced off the boards, making it 5-2 at 16:48.
The Canes continued to press, but they were out of time. As the clock ran down, the arena broke into cheers, and the Preds headed into the holiday break with another win and a standing ovation.