Nashville has been friendly to the Predators this season but Tuesday night the Winnipeg Jets came to town and ruined a three-game streak for the Preds with a 6-4 win.
A tight match was decided with 1:26 left in regulation when the Jets’Â Brandon Tanev struck for a goal to give the Jets a 5-4 lead; Blake Wheeler sealed with an empty-netter 
with two seconds left on the clock.
“I came down and I kind of felt [Rinne] might have thought I was going to go around the net and hit one of our late players,” Tanev said. “Just put the puck to the net and was fortunate to slide through there.”
Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers struck for two goals and Adam Lowry and Patrik Laine added single markers in the win.
“They (Nashville) require you to play a pretty good game,” Wheeler said. “I think that’s probably the best team we’ve played this year. Their back end is so elusive. A big part of our game is forechecking, and between Rinne and their back end, it’s just tough to get on pucks.”
Nashville got goals from Calle Jarnkrok, Kevin Fiala, P.K. Subban and Yannick Weber.
“I thought we just played OK tonight,” the Preds’ Roman Josi said. “Especially the first two [periods]. It wasn’t bad, but we didn’t play the way we wanted to, I think. Against a good team like that, it’s not enough. I thought we played pretty well in the third and had a lot of chances.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves.
“We played the way we wanted to,” Ehlers said. “We played hard. We played fast. We knew how they were going to play and got pucks to the net. We played a really good game.”
[WATCH: All Jets vs. Predators highlights]
Pekka  Rinne made 30 saves in the loss.
“We gave them a couple too many odd-man rushes, especially in the second period. They had the lead going into the third, and we knew we’d have to make a push. We know how they play. They’ve got a lot of good forwards with a lot of speed, so you’ve got to make sure you keep them in front of you,” Josi sad after the game.
You must be logged in to post a comment.