Predators bounce back from Game 3 barnburner
Nashville smothers Winnipeg’s potent offence to tie series 2-2,
PREDATORS 2, JETS 1
On this night, the value of playoff experience was on full display.
It would have been easy for a younger, inexperienced team to simply roll over after blowing a three-goal lead in Game 3, but the Nashville Predators are anything but.
Sure, they were sour about losing 7-4 Tuesday to fall behind in this series with the Winnipeg Jets, but instead of wasting time wondering what might have been, the Predators buckled down defensively and slipped out of town with a 2-1 victory at Bell MTS Place.
It was the first loss on home ice for the Jets in 14 games, dating back to Feb. 27 when the Predators used a third-period rally to beat them.
By tying the series 2-2, the Predators have regained homeice advantage and turned this into a best-of-three series.
“They have a very, very strong belief system going back to being an eight seed last year to making the final to dominating the league this year in the way they did,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice. “They have a very strong belief that they’re going to win. That’s an important part of this because you take your lumps like we did in Game 2 and I’m sure they felt like they let one slip away after Game 3. That belief system gets tested.”
It was natural to expect the Jets might get a boost from rallying from behind, but much like they stressed the importance of turning the page after losing Game 2 in double overtime, the same message was true leading into Thursday.
The only difference this time was that the Jets had a glorious opportunity to take a 3-1 stranglehold, but were unable to do so.
“This is kind of the turning point, probably, in the series,” said Jets winger Patrik Laine. “Always when it’s a new game, we’re starting from a clean table. There’s no momentum from the last game. Both teams are equal. I mean, it’s good for us that we won the last game, we’re feeling good about our game, but we know when we lost in Nashville, we wanted to come out hard after we lost.”
Predators goalie Pekka Rinne had an up-and-down start to the series, but his solid play is one of the biggest reasons this series is back on even footing.
Rinne didn’t allow any soft goals and came up with a highlight-reel save in the first period on Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey.
After a good scoring chance for Bryan Little, Morrissey tried to jam home the rebound on his backhand, only to have Rinne make the save in rather interesting fashion.
As the stick of Rinne was falling out of his hands, the butt end magically appeared on the ice and prevented the shot from crossing the goal-line.
Making his 80th start in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Rinne came up with his best game of the series at a time when some fans were petitioning for Predators head coach Peter Laviolette to replace the likely Vezina Trophy winner with backup Juuse Saros.
As it turns out, a goalie change wasn’t required.
Rinne finished with 32 saves and was 50.2 seconds away from recording a shutout.
With the net empty in favour of an extra attacker and the Jets on the power play, Laine snapped a six-game drought with his third goal of the playoffs.
The most important thing was the commitment to playing team defence.
The Predators opened the scoring for the third consecutive game, this time with 2:40 to go in the first period on a fourthline strike from Ryan Hartman.
The Jets had their fourth line out for a defensive zone faceoff and were unable to clear the puck in front, which allowed Hartman to pick up a loose puck in front.
With Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien in the box serving a slashing minor, the Predators extended the lead on a goal from P.K. Subban. Subban unloaded a one-timer from the point and took advantage of screens by Viktor Arvidsson and Craig Smith to score his third goal of this series.
Hartman also prevented a goal during the third period, diving to block a glorious chance from the slot by Jets centre Adam Lowry.
For all of the talk about needing to pay attention to the talented blue-liners on the Predators — especially those on the first two pairings — it’s been a relatively quiet series to this point from the group, with one notable exception.
Subban is the only Predators defenceman with a goal in the series and he’s been heavily involved at both ends of the ice.
In addition to his offensive contribution, Subban is logging big minutes against the Jets’ most explosive weapons.
Not only did the Predators do a good job of being opportunistic, they also played a smothering style of defence after taking the 2-0 lead.
Instead of sitting back, the Predators did an excellent job of keeping the Jets to the outside.
It took the Jets eight full minutes to record their first shot on goal during the third period.