NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Wednesday night at the Bridgestone Arena, Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne put on a show for the home fans to change the momentum. Friday night, Phoenix goalie Mike Smith took it all back.
Smith held the fort with a hard-fought 25-save performance for his second playoff shutout of this year as the Coyotes defeated the Predators 1-0 to take a commanding three-to-one lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series. Phoenix can advance to the conference finals with a win Monday night at home.
Smith out dueled Rinne, who was coming off a shutout of his own in game three, for the third time in the series. The Vezina trophy candidate stopped 23 shots but on this night is wasn’t quite enough.
“The game went exactly how we kind of anticipated it. I thought it was going to be a tightly contested (game), maybe a break here or there that gives one team an edge and that’s exactly what happened,” Phoenix head coach Dave Tippett said. “Our guys did a real good job of defending hard I some key areas and found a way to let the one goal stand up.”
After Wednesday night’s success without Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn in the lineup, Nashville head coach Barry Trotz chose to sit them again, keeping game three’s roster intact. That mattered little to the visiting Coyotes, who appeared to be on much more solid ice than they looked to be on in the previous contest. They carried the play to the Predators in the opening half of the first period, making Rinne work.
Rinne, the game three hero for the Predators, made a spectacular save on Phoenix forward Mikkel Boedker who found himself all alone in front with the puck. He made one move and thought he had Rinne dead to rights but the Finnish netminder flashed his right leg pad to make the stop.
Rinne held off the Coyotes until the 14:25 mark when some hustle from Phoenix and a little bad luck for the Predators led to a score. Off of a neutral zone face-off, Coyote defenseman Rostislav Klesla sent a hard dump in around the boards. Doan hustled in and knocked Nashville defenseman Hal Gill off the puck. Doan got the puck to Boedker who ran a give and go with his teammate. Doan rolled to the crease where he let go with a backhander that glanced off defender Roman Josi, throwing Rinne’s timing off. The puck hit the top of the goalie’s pad and floated into the net, quieting the crowd and taking some of the air out of the Predators.
Down the other end of the ice, Smith was far less busy in facing five shots. Most of those came in the final seconds of the period as Nashville put on some pressure, forcing Smith to scramble to try to capture the puck. Had there been even one more second on the clock, Gill might have scored as he ended with the puck on his stick five feet out and Smith down but the buzzer sounded to end the stanza.
Nashville came out much harder in the second period, equaling Phoenix in shots on net but it was the ones that missed that frustrated Trotz and the fans. Patric Hornqvist was probably kicking himself the most as he recorded five misses during the period with one clanging off the far post behind Smith and three others sailing wide from in close. Even sure-handed sniper Mike Fisher failed to hit the target on a golden opportunity in the slot.
“Take away the first period and I thought the second and third period we played very well,” Trotz said. “We got some quality chances and couldn’t find the back of the net.”
With the lead heading into the final period, Phoenix started to amp up its defensive play. The Coyotes allowed just two shots over the first 9:25 of the third, the second being a shot by Colin Wilson with traffic in front of Smith. Smith was able to focus on Wilson’s drive from the near circle to make the save and control the rebound before any Predators could jump on it.
The tension went up with every second that went by. Nashville had a golden opportunity when Phoenix defenseman Derek Morris was called for delay of game with 8:26 left. With 7:12 to go, the Predators thought they had tied the score when out of scrum in front, Smith ended up in the net with the puck against his pad but referee Dan O’Halloran waived off the goal.
Trotz said that the explanation given to captain Shea Weber by O’Halloran was in his estimation not acceptable.
“They (the referees) said that Hornqvist pushed the goaltender into the net,” Trotz said. “If you look at it, I don’t buy that. That’s been a couple in this series already.”
In the closing minutes, the Predators crashed the net every chance they got trying to get the one rebound that could be turned into the tying score. Hornqvist had another chance to atone for his myriad of misses with 6:18 left but Smith shut the door. The Coyotes defense and forwards collapsed in to help Smith by blocking shots and deflecting passes. Nashville pulled Rinne with just over a minute to go but never could find a way to beat Smith and send the game to overtime.
After the game, Tippett was asked if his message to the players on Monday would be any different with the chance to end the series on the line. He said that it will be the same speech that he has been using throughout the series and the playoffs.
“It’s going to be the same kind of game. It’s not going to be any different,” Tippett said. “There will be very little space, very little advantages and you’re going to have to compete hard and hopefully find a way to win a game. It won’t be any different than tonight.”
Game Notes: With its 0-for-3 night on the power play, Nashville is now 0-for-23 with the man advantage at home this playoff year…Phoenix is now 5-1 in the playoffs when scoring the first goal…The teams combined to miss 27 shots in the contest (Phoenix 13, Nashville 14)…The Coyotes blocked 16 shots in the game with Daymond Langkow leading the way with four. Kevin Klein led the Predators with four of the team’s 15 blocked shots. Through four games, Nashville has 65 blocks to 47 by Phoenix…Nashville is the first team since 1994 to score three or fewer goals in its first nine games of a playoff season.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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