The Anaheim Ducks had nearly an entire season to recover from a dreadful start. Now they have five games to reverse their fortunes in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
On Sunday, the Ducks dropped a 3-2 decision to the Nashville Predators to fall into a 0-2 hole on home ice.
Pekka Rinne made 27 saves to help Preds to 2-0 series lead – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Pekka Rinne made 27 saves for the win to give the Preds a 2-0 series lead for the first time in franchise history.
“They had their looks and we had ours,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “They had the first 10 minutes of the first period but I thought we took it back a little bit in the second part of the first period. We were able to get some goals in the second period but it was just tight out there both ways. It was physical, it was tight and each team had their looks.”
Mattias Ekholm, Craig Smith and Shea Weber scored for Nashville.
For Anaheim it was a disastrous game where they were called for five penalties.
“We were just stupid out there,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “The penalties we take sometimes are just so selfish and so dumb… Quite frankly, we don’t deserve a break if we’re just going to be yelling and being stupid all night long.”
Andrew Cogliano put the Ducks ahead 1-0 before the house fell in on Anaheim when the Predators scored three straight markers.
Rinne was considered a question mark in this series but has been solid in the Nashville net so far.
“He’s been terrific, he looked great in there,” Laviolette said of his goaltender. “We always accepted a little bit of responsibility three or four months ago for not doing the right things in front of him, and now we’ve been a little bit better in front of him. But there’s always saves that need to be made and he made the saves tonight, especially early on. He gave us an opportunity to stay in that game.”
Nate Thompson closed the gap to 3-2 with under three minutes left in regulation but the Ducks had nothing else.
John Gibson made 24 saves in the loss.
Game 3 is Tuesday at Bridgestone Arena (9:30 p.m. ET: USA, SN360, TVA Sports 2, PRIME, FS-TN).
You must be logged in to post a comment.