Florida Panthers 5, Nashville Predators 4: Shootout Loss, Another Moral Victory?
In somewhat similar fashion to Thursday's game at Boston, the Nashville Predators did well to push tonight's game to overtime, earning a point in the standings, but they fell in a shootout to the Florida Panthers, 5-4.
A real scare in this one came late in the second period, as the Panthers took a 3-2 lead just 57 seconds after Mike Fisher tied the game. Seth Jones had a pretty bad giveaway which led to that Florida score, but made up for it in the third period by burying a feed from Roman Josi to bring the Preds to within 4-3 late.
With the goalie pulled in the final minute, Paul Gaustad scored to send the game to overtime, stuffing home a loose puck that was fired from the point by Shea Weber and bounced off Patric Hornqvist. Nashville was rewarded for carrying the bulk of the play, out-shooting Florida 32-19 after the first period.
Next up, the Predators (18-18-6) head immediately to Carolina for a game against the Hurricanes tomorrow evening. Within Winnipeg losing tonight to Boston, the Preds did at least pick up a point towards catching the Jets in the standings.
Random Observations
- Viktor Stalberg played on a line with Paul Gaustad & Eric Nystrom, while Nick Spaling got power play time with Matt Cullen & Craig Smith. Oh, how you task us, Barry Trotz...
- It was good to see Fisher keep up his scoring streak, as he now has four goals and five assists over the last four games.
- We finally got a chance to see Matt Hendricks try the Paralyzer in the shootout, and he clangs his shot off the post. Grr...
- But hey, David Legwand scored the first shootout goal of the season for Nashville after 11 team misses!
Boxscore - Game Summary - Event Summary - Fancy Stats
Roll the video highlights...
Who was your Predator of the Game?
| Mike Fisher | 47 |
| Paul Gaustad | 8 |
| Seth Jones | 8 |
| Craig Smith | 26 |