NOTHING EASY FOR NASHVILLE, BUT THEY NOW LEAD SERIES
Not every villain has a playoff beard and wears an Anaheim Ducks jersey. Some are dressed in stripes.
At least, that might be the way fans of the Nashville Predators are looking at it after on-ice officials nearly cost the team a win in Game 3 of the Western Conference final.
Anaheim’s Ryan Kesler was booed almost every time he touched the puck on Tuesday. But most of the venom was saved for referees Brad Meier and Wes McCauley, who disallowed two Nashville goals.
They weren’t necessarily the wrong calls — but try explaining that to a sold-out crowd who chanted “Refs, you suck!” and littered the ice with bright yellow rally towels after two goals were disallowed in less than 20 seconds.
Luckily for the Predators, they persevered in a 2-1 win against the Ducks in Game 3 — and they sort of had the referees to thank for it.
After Anaheim’s Chris Wagner caught Nashville’s Ryan Ellis with a high stick in the final four minutes of the third period, Predators defenceman Roman Josi scored the game-winner with 2:43 to go on the ensuing power play.
With the win, the Predators took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 takes place in Nashville on Thursday. And with how close and how physical both teams have been playing, you can bet the officials will once again have their hands full.
Heading into the game, most of the talk was about the ongoing battle between Ryan Johansen and Kesler, whose feud had spilled into a war of words off the ice.
Johansen, who had been shadowed for the first two games of the series, should have seen less of Kesler in Game 3. But even with the Predators controlling the last line change, head coach Peter Laviolette did not shelter the team’s top scorer from the Ducks’ top checkers.
Of course, it wasn’t just Ryan Johansen that Nashville had to worry about. As the Predators realized, the Ducks had more than one agitator capable of knocking opponents off their game.
With a scoreless tie in the second period, Ducks winger Jared Boll caught Harry Zolnierczyk with an open-ice hit that crumpled the Predators forward to the ice. Cody McLeod immediately jumped to his teammate’s defence, picking a fight with Boll. It was a valiant but foolish decision, as McLeod received a penalty for instigating and was kicked out of the game.
On the ensuing power play, Corey Perry delivered the knockout blow that McLeod couldn’t. Taking the puck wide, Perry banked a shot off Pekka Rinne to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead.
It had been that kind of series for Rinne, who struggled uncharacteristically in Game 2, allowing four or more goals for the first time this post-season. He bounced back with a far better effort in Game 3, but there were still some close calls, like when the Ducks cleared the puck the length of the ice and it nearly skipped over Rinne’s pads at the last moment.
Another time, the Preds got caught on a bad pinch resulting in a two-on-one for the Ducks. Brandon Montour tried to make a backhand pass to Jakob Silfverberg but fanned on the puck, causing it to sneak under Rinne’s pads. Luckily for Nashville, defenceman Mattias Ekholm knocked the net off before the puck could cross the line.
At the other end of the ice, goalie John Gibson put on a clinic. Nashville outshot Anaheim 28-13 through 40 minutes — the Ducks had only four shots in the second period — but Gibson turned them all away.
It was not until the third period when the puck started going in. Even then, getting the goals to count proved to be a challenge.
Down a goal in the third period, Filip Forsberg knocked Silfverberg off the puck behind Anaheim’s net and then found Ryan Ellis in the slot for a one-timer. Gibson made the initial save, but Forsberg tied the game on the rebound.
A couple of minutes later, with the crowd jeering Gibson, it looked like the Predators had taken the lead. But Colton Sissons had his goal disallowed because of goalie interference. The scene played out again moments later, this time with Johansen depositing another rebound in the back of the net that was immediately disallowed because of goalie interference.
To make matters worse, Viktor Arvidsson was penalized on the play. But not only did the Predators kill off a penalty, they also gave their fans something to cheer about when Josi scored the game-winner soon after.