The Nashville Predators and the Pittsburgh Penguins engaged in a goalie duel tonight that was decided by a Phil Kessel overtime goal.
The Predators outplayed the Penguins, but Marc-Andre Fleury did everything he could to keep his team in the game. On the other side, Pekka Rinne stopped almost everything sent his way as well, but was pierced just enough. Chris Kunitz had the only goal in regulation for Pittsburgh, while his former teammate James Neal tallied for Nashville.
Random Observations
- Austin Waton’s hit on Brian Dumoulin was questionable. There will probably be a ton of arguments and discussion on whether the refs got the call right. Personally, I’m not so sure on the five minutes, but I have no problem with it being a penalty.
- Thankfully, Nashville’s excellent PK was up to the task of silencing Pittsburgh’s awful power play. It’s something the Pens need to get going in order to win more games, but the Predators efficiently killed all five minutes, and even added several scoring chances of their own. The crowd was behind them after that.
- Seems like a lot of shots were being sent just wide. The Preds had plenty of chances on Fleury, but many of them weren’t hitting the net. One of these led to a rush the other way, and Evgeni Malkin fed Chris Kunitz who broke open the scoring. It took almost two periods, but the Pens were on the board and it was the first time all season Nashville allowed the first goal.
- Shea Weber and Paul Gaustad had a shorthanded 2-on-1, but no dice.
- Give credit to Fleury. Dude was on his game tonight.
- All his goals are filled with hate. James Neal finally scored against his old team when he roofed his own rebound. Everyone breathed a little easier, and Nashville wouldn’t be shutout for a second consecutive time with Pittsburgh in town.
- Phil Kessel’s danger comes from doing exactly what he did in OT. He flies down the wing and rips one of the best shots in the league, and goalies can’t do anything about it. Rinne almost made the save, but left just enough of a rebound for Kessel to find. Game over.
- The Predators’ bench performed a little sit down protest after the game was over. They thought Malkin intentionally stuck his stick into Forsberg’s skates at the blue line, brining him down and opening up a lane for Kessel to shoot. Whether it was intentional or not, nothing was called on the ice and it wasn’t going to change the outcome of the game.
Nashville dominated large stretches of this game, but ran into a hot goalie. It happens. The offense isn’t going to score six goals every game, but they’ll certainly win plenty with performances like that. See you on Wednesday.
OTF’s Super Duper Stars of the Game
- Marc-Andre Fleury: Like mentioned above, he was on his game tonight and kept the Pens in a game they were thoroughly outshot.
- James Neal: Yeah.
- Roman Josi’s Broken Stick: We are all you./
Was the Smashville App Correct?
Nope. 1/8. The magic may be gone.
Tweet of the Game
Matthias Ekholm looks like he wants to eat Evgeni Malkin’s soul: pic.twitter.com/LOrM4wG3RL
— Seth Rorabaugh (@emptynetters) October 25, 2015
Boxscore – Game Summary – Event Summary – War-on-Ice – HockeyStats – Natural Stat Trick
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