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What Happened Last Night: Nashville Predators @ Anaheim Ducks Game 5

Posted on by Mark Harris

The Predators won…the Corsi battle, which has been a common theme throughout the series. During 5-on-5 situations the Predators posted a Corsi For total of 55 while Anaheim chalked up a total of 38.

Write another victory up for Nashville in the scoring chances department as well. Nashville had 23 scoring chances during 5-on-5 play while the Ducks managed only 15. High-danger scoring chances? Yeah, the Predators had those too; 12 in fact. The Ducks recorded just seven during 5-on-5 play.

Here is the most fun stat of them all: the Nashville Predators committed seven penalties handing the Anaheim Ducks – the NHL’s top power play unit during the regular season – seven chances on the man advantage. The Ducks lit the lamp only once with the extra skater, but nevertheless the Preds went up against their power play far too much throughout the contest. Nashville went 0-3 on the power play.

Neither team found the back of the net in the opening period, but that isn’t to say it wasn’t entertaining.

The Predators out shot the Ducks 13-12 in the first period and out chanced them by a count of 11-8. Frederik Andersen was a wall in net however coming up with two big saves early on.

The first on Roman Josi during a 2-on-1 rush by the Preds:

Andersen’s next big stop came on Viktor Arvidsson in the slot:

Following some back and forth action, Shea Weber decided that he wanted to ramp things up a bit so he decided to make his presence known by throwing Corey Perry to the ice. Savage.

Late in the period, just seconds after Weber was called for a cross-check, Perry seemingly forgot where he was on the ice or didn’t notice the the 6-foot-5 man in the crease. He was called for goalie interference to offset Weber’s minor.

The hits kept on coming in the second as James Neal can attest to as he landed a stiff shot on Jakob Silfverberg.

The scoring finally got going with 5:47 left in the middle period thanks to Ryan Johansen showing off his hand to dance around Kevin Bieksa (maybe not his best effort). Just your everyday forehand to backhand to roof goal. Nothing to see here.

The momentum shifted to Nashville after the goal…for 22 seconds.

David Perron found some space on the blue line and decided to let one rip towards the net. On it’s way towards Pekka Rinne and the goal, the puck deflects off of Josi and into the air just beyond the reach of Rinne.

Only the full highlight gives this goal justice.

Then, with 3:37 left in the second period the Ducks took their first lead of the contest thanks to Ryan Garbutt stuffing the puck home past Rinne. The Finnish netminder looked to be in the right position, but somehow the puck got past him and into the back of the net.

But wait, did it actually get past Rinne or did it sneak under the netting and into the back of the goal? Lyndsay Rowley gave her thoughts.

Frustration started to settle in a bit. As the horn sounded to end the second frame, Neal caught Perry with an elbow for what was the Preds’ fifth minor of the contest and Neal’s second on Perry alone.

After committing a penalty at the 6:27 mark of the third period, Sami Vatanen skated out of the box behind the Nashville defense and received a perfect pass from Silfverberg. Ducks 3, Predators 1.

The Predators made the bleeding stop thanks to Miikka Salomaki burying a rebound off of a Weber bomb with with 6:31 left in regulation.

Just when a little bit of life was given to the boys in gold it was taken away with 3:23 left in the contest. Just seconds after Mike Ribeiro committed one of the worst penalties of his career – a slash on Ryan Kesler – Fowler sent a blast through traffic and stuck the dagger into Nashville.

Kesler scored in the empty net with less than two minutes to go for his second goal of the post season.

There are a lot of negatives to take away from this game and not a lot of positives. It was nice to see Johansen get one and Mike Fisher and Arvidsson created some high-danger chances, but at the end of the day the goals and bounces weren’t there for the Predators.

The good news is that the Predators return to 501 Broadway tomorrow night. It could be the last time the Preds step foot on that ice until next season or it could be the start of another fun ride just like the Nashville faithful found themselves on during games one and two in this series.

RyJo knows:

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