Preds beat Jets in 2OT to even series
NASHVILLE — Kevin Fiala scored 5:37 into double overtime as the Nashville Predators beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-4 Sunday night to even their Western Conference semifinal series.
The Presidents’ Trophy winners had the NHL’s best road record during the regular season, but the Predators got the split they needed before this series switches to Winnipeg for Game 3 on Tuesday night. That’s where the Jets posted the league’s best home record.
Craig Smith and Fiala skated up for a 2-on-1 matchup, and Jets defenseman Byflugien failed to block Smith’s crossice pass to Fiala, who beat goalie Connor Hellebuyck with a backhander.
Ryan Johansen scored two goals, Viktor Arvidsson had a goal and two assists, and P.K. Subban had a goal and an assist as Nashville won both its 100th postseason game as a franchise and coach Peter Laviolette’s 50th with the team. Filip Forsberg also had three primary assists for the first time in the postseason in his career.
For Winnipeg, Mark Scheifele scored two goals and had an assist, Byflugien had a goal and an assist, and Brandon Tanev had a goal.
Tanev tied it at 3, putting the puck past Pekka Rinne’s right skate with 5:11 left in the third period. Johansen answered 34 seconds later, skating around Jets defenseman Toby Enstrom and beating Hellebuyck top shelf.
But Scheifele forced overtime with his fourth goal in this series and eighth this postseason with 1:05 left in regulation and Hellebuyck pulled for the extra attacker.
The Predators brought star Carrie Underwood in for “The Star-Spangle Banner” as a “proud hockey wife” of Nashville center Mike Fisher, and Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota brought his offensive linemen to wave the rally towels. Pro Bowl left tackle Taylor Lewan held up a huge catfish before they chugged beers — Lewan using the catfish as a funnel.
After throwing up a postseason-high 48 shots while losing Game 1 on Friday night, the Predators wasted no time getting on the board this time. Johansen scored 27 seconds in on Nashville’s first shot for a 1-0 lead, snapping Winnipeg’s streak of 10 straight games scoring the first goal, with the Jets going 9-1-0 in that stretch dating back to the regular season.
The Jets made up for that by scoring twice 29 seconds apart to grab the lead. Byflugien scored between Rinne’s pads in a 4-on-4 matchup at 12:47, and Scheifele made it 2-1 with a power-play goal with 13:16 left in the period.
Subban tied it with a slap shot for Nashville’s first power-play goal of the series and the Norris Trophy finalist’s first goal this postseason at 5:04 of the second. That brought the sold-out crowd to life again, and Rinne settled down as well. A couple minutes later, he made a big pad save on a shot by Kyle Connor and then gloved a shot from Byflugien.
The Jets thought they took the lead with 6:14 left in the second period, only to have the apparent goal by Andrew Copp immediately waved off. Rinne made the stop on Byflugien off a breakaway, with Copp scoring off the rebound. But Matt Hendricks was called for interference for knocking down Nashville defenseman Matt Irwin, negating the goal.
Arvidsson gave Nashville a 3-2 lead with a slap shot from the right circle with 18:41 remaining in the second.