The last-place Predators once again tried to staple together a win today, against a goalie who’s struggled, and once again just couldn’t find the offense to get themselves out of trouble.
They started off with an early goal, courtesy of Roman Josi and set up by Steven Stamkos, and had some more good looks at the start. Around five minutes in, Anthony Cirelli took a puck to the face and the game was stopped first to allow Cirelli to get off the ice and then to clean up the blood.
When play resumed, Stamkos took an offensive zone penalty, and while the Preds got it killed off — and even managed a shorthanded chance, courtesy of Cole Smith — it wasn’t great for their momentum. They got another great chance very late in the period when Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson came about half a mile out of the net to play the puck and mishandled it, but Johansson was able to get back into his net before Luke Evangelista could line up the angle.
Other than that, though, the rest of the first was mostly Tampa’s, even when Ryan McDonagh — back with his old team — took a slash at Stamkos and put the Bolts shorthanded. Cirelli, showing no lasting ill effects from that earlier injury, had a fantastic shorthanded chance stopped by an even better save from Juuse Saros. Intermission, and even returning from intermission without Nikita Kucherov, didn’t slow the Bolts down much.
Late in the power play, Stamkos took his second penalty of the game, while Jonathan Marchessault and JJ Moser took coincidental roughing minors against each other. Saros had to make another fantastic save on Brayden Point, but the Preds’ luck ran out on their next power play — a Michael Eyssimont penalty — when Cirelli converted another shorthanded try to tie the game at 4:06 of the second.
Gage Goncalves tipped a shot through traffic four minutes later to give the Lightning the lead. The Preds rallied after that, with Evangelista and Mark Jankowski setting Josi up to tie the game again, and the second period ended with some seesawing of play.
The third began with Kucherov’s return and Saros clearing the puck over the glass just 19 seconds in, putting Nashville back on the penalty kill. The Preds killed it off and almost managed to score as Zach L’Heureux, who’d served it for Saros, emerged from the box.
Saros made a fantastic save on the Preds’ old nemesis Jake Guentzel around halfway through the third, which was beautiful to see. Play continued to swing wildly as both teams fought for the equalizer before the end of regulation, but neither succeeded.
41 seconds into overtime, Filip Forsberg took a penalty — adding to the total in this chippy game — and the Bolts got a 4-on-3 power play. They didn’t waste any time, with Point managing, like Cirelli before him, to make good on a scoring attempt.
The Preds are back in action tomorrow night against the Minnesota Wild.