In Sunrise, Chris Driedger made 27 saves to help the Florida Panthers to a 3-0 win over the Nashville Predators.
It was Driedger’s first NHL start.
“Honestly, I’m speechless at this point,” Driedger said. “It’s been a long time coming. They told me I was starting yesterday. I was definitely pretty nervous going into it, but once the puck dropped I kind of felt good. The [defense] did an incredible job tonight making my job easy. It was incredible. It was a lot of fun.”
Anton Stralman struck for two goals for the Panthers.
“It’s always fun,” Stralman said. “Sometimes it’s just being at the right place at the right time. Other than that, there was not much to it, just trying to hit the net. It’s a good feeling.”
The Predators had a four-game point streak snapped in the shutout.
“We were just OK tonight,” forward Ryan Johansen said. “It’s tough. Back-to-backs are tough, traveling. The bottom line is we needed to do more to be successful. We didn’t create enough opportunities. When we did have ours, their goalie played well, and they did some good things. It’s the way it went.”
Aleksander Barkov also scored for Florida.
“It was incredible,” Driedger said. “Every shot that I saw, I could save. If I didn’t see them, they blocked them. It was awesome. They did an incredible job in front of me. I wouldn’t be answering these questions if it wasn’t for them.”
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Panthers Highlights]
Juuse Saros made 25 saves in the loss.
“We played eight games in a row with pop and tonight, for me, we were flat,” Predators head coach Peter Laviolette said. “We started out just OK and it slid from there in the third period. It’s not enough. You’ve got to play at a higher tempo and a higher level in order to be successful. If you don’t, you roll the dice and it didn’t go our way. We’ve got to put more into it.”
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