Whatever way you look at it, three goals in four games is, well, unacceptable.
On Thursday in Nashville, the Predator’s finished off the Chicago Blackhawks in a four-
game sweep to advance in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“It’s definitely a great feeling,” Nashville defenseman Roman Josi said. “I thought we played a great series. That’s a great team over there, and we’ve got a lot of respect for them. They’ve got some world-class players, and I thought we played really well in all of those four games.”
The final was 4-1 and the Hawks were lucky to get the one goal, from Jonathan Toews, as the Preds’ defense was smothering.
“Give them credit,” Hawks head coach Joel Quenneville said. “They played great. I still think we didn’t push in a lot of areas. We could have had the puck a lot more in a lot of situations, lost lots of those 1-on-1 or those individual battles, relentless around the net, missing shots, missing pucks. I think that was contagious. We had to be better.”
Josi scored twice for Nashville and Colton Sissons and Viktor Arvidsson also scored.
Pekka Rinne made 30 saves to get the win.
In the series, Rinne made 123 stops on 126 shots and his numbers are gaudy form there with a 0.70 goals-against average and .976 save percentage.
“I’m feeling good,” Rinne said. “I felt confident throughout the series. I thought that Games 1 and 3 especially, [were] huge wins momentum-wise. Getting the first road game and then the first game at home, that overtime game (a 3-2 win Monday), I think that was a difference in the series. We found a way to win a game every single night.”
The Predators play the winner of the St Louis Blues-Minnesota Wild series.
“When you start something, you don’t sit there and plan to sweep,” Predators head coach Peter Laviolette said. “You don’t sit there and plan a shutout. You plan a game plan to go out and how you want to play. I thought our guys played really well. I thought they executed it really well.”
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Blackhawks highlights | RELATED: Complete Nashville vs. Chicago series coverage]
Corey Crawford made 22 saves in taking the loss.
“It’s tough to lose a series and fall short. It’s a whole different story to lose four straight and get swept like we did,” Toews said. “I think we’ve got guys in this room that have experienced the highs of going all the way. I think aside from what it would feel like to miss the playoffs, especially with the potential in this room, this has to be the next worse feeling for sure.”
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