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What Happened Last Night: Nashville Predators @ Anaheim Ducks Game 2

Posted on by Mark Harris

And we thought Game 1 was fun?

At even strength the Ducks out played the Predators in many areas.The Ducks out shot the Preds 26-19, out Corsi’d the Preds 50-32, had 18 scoring chances compared to the Preds’ 13 and also connected for 43 hits while the Preds only had 28.

The difference maker was that Anaheim spent a lot of time a man down as Nashville saw six chances at the power play and capitalized on one that proved to be the game winner. The Predators faced the Ducks’ power play just once on their way to the 3-2 win.

Before we get to the goals, there are a few other moments we have to address.

The first highlight of the night came courtesy of Filip Forsberg in the first period – you’ll see more of him later – as he delivered one of the better butt-checks you’ll ever see. This hit seemingly jump started the battle we saw on the ice until the final buzzer.

Corey Perry of course had to get in on the action because the day ended with a ‘Y’. He tried to pick on Cody Bass, the Cody Bass known for dropping the gloves, the Cody Bass that posted 165 penalty minutes in 61 games with the Rockford IceHogs a year ago.

Perry tried to get Bass to flinch with a head fake, but Bass was having none of that. Perry had two minor penalties in the first 10 minutes of the game.

Just moments later, Roman Josi was trying to carry the puck into Anaheim territory with Ryan Getzlaf trying to keep up with the blue liner. Getzlaf was called for hooking and Josi went to the box as well after being called for embellishment.

Following the shenanigans, the first goal of the night was scored when Andrew Cogliano broke away with 5:40 left in the opening frame. A fantastic goal by the 28-year-old…

…but not as fantastic as what you are about to see.

With just 56 seconds left in the first period Craig Smith found Colin Wilson streaking towards the corner. Wilson was able to control the puck and slip a nice little touch pass to Mattias Ekholm. The big Swede then decided to show off his backhand as he went top shelf on John Gibson to knot things up at 1-1.

Just over 10 minutes into the second period the Predators took the lead thanks to a quick wrister from Craig Smith.

The play began with a stellar keep-in by Roman Josi who dumped the puck to Filip Forsberg all alone behind the net. Forsberg then made a Forsberg play in finding Smith who showed off his wrist shot to give the Preds a 2-1 advantage.

Some more drama happened between Nashville’s second goal and third goal as James Neal decided to do this to John Gibson as he skated by the crease with Ryan Kesler attached to his hip.

Nashville scored another late period goal to close out the second, this one on the power play from Shea Weber.

Josi continued to feed the puck to the captain and the third attempt ended up being the charm for Weber to push the Nashville lead to 3-1 headed into the third frame. Forsberg picked up a secondary assist on the tally.

Everyone knew things were going to get even more physical in the third period, but no one knew it was going to take less than one minute for Pekka Rinne to get his legs taken out from under him.

Ryan Getzlaf must have just forgotten about the 6-foot-5 Finn in goal when he decided to take the skating path that he did.

The Ducks were not going to go away quietly of course, and with 2:42 left in regulation they cut the Nashville lead to one thanks to Nate Thompson getting a deflection off of Josi’s skate.

That was all she wrote however as the Predators held on to take a two to nothing advantage in the series as they head home to Nashville.

No need to be happy yet though, everyone:

To recap, Forsberg (2A), Josi (2A) and Craig Smith (1G, 1A) all had two point nights. Ekholm (1G), Wilson (1A) and Weber (1PPG) also found the scoresheet with a point each.

Rinne stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced on the night including five of the six high-danger chances he faced.

All stats via War On Ice.

Talking Points