In Nashville, the Predators took a step back on Tuesday night. After sweeping the Columbus Blue Jackets in a two-game set, they dropped a 4-2 decision to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Sebastian Aho had the first and last goals of the game for the Hurricanes.
The Canes built a 3-0 lead through two periods and then had to hold off the Preds in the third.
“We dominated for two periods,” Hurricaneshead coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “The other team gets paid a lot of money and they’re going to play hard in the third period. I will take this all day long.”
James Reimer made 36 saves to get the win.
Nashville’s Calle Jarnkrok and Mattias Ekholm closed the gap with third period goals, but the Preds could not get even.
“They’re a good team, they’re right on top of you,” the Predators’ Nick Cousins said. “Their goalie played well too, but at the same time, in the third period we made it tougher on their goalie and their defense, and that’s more the style we like to play.”
Steven Lorentz and Vincent Trocheck added single markers for the Hurricanes.
“I just tried to raise it and it found a corner,” Lorentz said. “I’m so happy it went in. I don’t remember what happened afterwards, but the boys tell me I was pretty excited and I celebrated big.”
Trocheck’s goal was his 12th of teh season and came off the power play as the first period was winding down for a 2-0 lead to the Canes.
“I thought in the first period, we didn’t play fast enough,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “We weren’t at the level we needed to be right off the start. Some adjustments were made, and players did a better job as the game went on, but you don’t want to get down like that.”
Aho scored into an empty-net with 14 seconds left to ice the win, it was a power play goal.
“They were on full-court press and they were coming at us,” Brind’Amour said. “Two or three great stops. Any successful team is going to have goaltending that comes up big when they need it and that’s what we had tonight.”
Juuse Saros surrendered two goals and made eight saves as the starter. He left the game in the first period with an injury.
Pekka Rinne made 16 saves the rest of the way.
“In the third, we were all over them,” Ekholm said. “To expect us to score three goals in the third going into it, it’s obviously a tough task. But the way it played out, I thought we had chances to do it.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.