The Preds went on the road, still looking to build off their recent wins at home. The crowd in St Louis honored Ryan O’Reilly at the start of the game, and we were off.
Nashville opened up the scoring when Filip Forsberg tapped a Jeremy Lauzon shot past Joel Hofer at 6:57. Almost right after, Colton Sissons, Yakov Trenin, and Liam Foudy made a great rush play that ended in a Trenin goal. However, Ryan McDonagh then took a tripping penalty, heading to the sin bin and giving the Blues a chance on the power play.
The Preds killed the penalty off and went back on the attack, pressuring hard. Just before 13:25, Brayden Schenn hit Roman Josi a little late, and Jeremy Lauzon took exception. Luke Evangelista scored on the next shift to put the Preds up by three.
While the arena went quiet, the Blues didn’t. Their pushback was rewarded with a Pavel Buchnevich goal at 16:32, and they continued to attack as the period wound down. The Preds squeaked their way into intermission without giving up another, and took the opportunity to regroup. They came out strong to start the second period, and while Juuso Pärssinen wasn’t able to convert on a fantastic chance early on, the Preds kept the play alive until Spencer Stastney was able to score his first career NHL goal at 2:45. That was it for Hofer, as Jordan Binnington was put in in relief.
Nikita Alexandrov then took a penalty, giving the Preds a chance on the power play, and less than a minute in so did Pavel Buchnevich. Gustav Nyquist, who’d drawn the Buchnevich hooking penalty, made sure to get a whistle instead of a lengthy delay, giving the Preds a chance to coordinate a 5-on-3 instead of winging a 6-on-4.
Filip Forsberg set O’Reilly up for a goal with the two-skater advantage, with some good puck movement from the power play as a whole, and O’Reilly took the setup to make it a 5-1 game. Evangelista had a few good looks as the power play expired, finally scoring just two seconds after it ended.
The Blues pushed back hard, with some incredibly bad luck for them as Jordan Kyrou shot wide while Kevin Lankinen, who’d tripped, was out of commission. Lankinen reset himself, but the Preds were still trapped in their own end, until Ryan McDonagh drew a tripping penalty. The Blues attacked shorthanded a few times, but neither team was able to score during the power play, until Rob Thomas scored after it had expired–much like Evangelista, earlier–by taking advantage of a lapse in defensive coverage. 6-2.
The Blues continued to press as the period continued, but with under three minutes to go before intermission, Cole Smith set Forsberg up for his second goal of the afternoon. 7-2. Oskar Sundqvist then high-sticked Kiefer Sherwood and–incredibly–was called for it, sending the Preds back to the power play with 2:03 remaining in the second. Neither team scored, or got much offense in, and the period came to an end.
Nashville took an early penalty in the third, with Forsberg heading off for high-sticking, but Lankinen made a few timely saves and the Preds escaped without incident. Tyson Barrie then misplayed a puck and had to take an interference penalty to make up for it, putting the Preds back shorthanded. This time, despite the Preds’ best efforts, Torey Krug scored, giving the Blues their first home power-play goal of the season. 7-3, at 5:23 of the third.
The Blues continued to attack, pressing hard and forcing Lankinen to really work for every save. The Preds got a break halfway through the period, as Sammy Blais was sent off for tripping. Unfortunately, Pärssinen’s stick broke during the power play, cutting down on the amount of pressure the Preds were able to apply.
With the penalty over, the Blues yet again struck into Nashville’s zone. During a brief counterattack, featuring some hard work from one of the identity lines, Sherwood scored a goal that nobody noticed at first, making it 8-3. Again the Blues went right back on the attack, and Tyson Barrie dropped to the ice after blocking a shot up high. He got back up after a moment, but it was an alarming moment.
With just under four minutes to go, Gustav Nyquist was called for taking a retaliation penalty after Alexey Toropchenko manhandled him into the boards, and the Preds went back to the penalty kill. Lankinen made a great save on Brandon Saad on the rebound, and Yakov Trenin almost managed to score shorthanded, but Binnington also made a good save.
Even in the final minute, the Blues refused to give up, but the Preds held on for the win.