The new-look Nashville Predators tonight iced a lineup that should look pretty similar to what we’ll see on opening night against Dallas. Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi made their preseason debuts, but it was Jonathan Marchessault’s two goals that was the story of the night as the Predators defeated Carolina 6-4.
In a first period dominated by Nashville, Juuso Parssinen got the scoring started early, picking up his first of the preseason with assists by Roman Josi and Scott Wedgewood. Just over a minute later, last year’s top line extended the lead when a falling Filip Forsberg made a pass across the middle of the ice to Gustav Nyquist who sent it home for a 2-0 score. The Predators weren’t finished though, as Jeremy Lauzon was credited with a deflected puck that went in for Nashville’s third goal in five minutes. Just 30 seconds later, Felix Unger Sorum for Carolina answered to cut the lead to two, however Dante Fabbro would score from the blue line (the goal was credited to Parssinen, then back to Fabbro throughout the game) and Nashville went into first intermission with a commanding 4-1 lead.
The second period was much less eventful, as the Predators continued to struggle on the power play (they went 0/4 on the evening), and with six minutes left, the monotony was finally broken with a nice goal from the Canes’ Ryan Suzuki on the backhand to cut the lead to 4-2. In a game with one quick response goal already, tonight’s hero Jonathan Marchessault scored just a minute later, picking up his second goal of the preseason and pushing the lead back to three once again.
Marchessault would score again seven minutes into the third period, with Josi picking up another assist, and in what shouldn’t be a surprise in this game, the Canes responded a minute later with a goal from Brendan Lemieux. Late in the game, Nashville finally committed their first (and second) penalties with over two minutes remaining, and Bradly Nadeau would get the Canes’ fourth goal of the evening on a 5 on 3, with Sorum picking up his third point of the evening. Despite the late attempt, Nashville would close out the game with a 6-4 victory.