In Nashville, Juuse Saros made 33 saves and the Predators shut out the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-0, on Thursday.
The win pushed the Preds to within one point of the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
“The foundation of our team is strong goaltending,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “He obviously made some big saves at key times for us. They’re a team that throws a lot of pucks to the net. They have a lot of traffic, and he found pucks. I thought he was really good with his rebound control so there weren’t a lot of second or third opportunities at the net front.”
The Predators improved to 40-30-8.
Mark Jankowski and Michael McCarron scored three minutes apart in the opening stanza for a 2-0 lead to the Predators.
“We know the position we’re in, and we take our guys against anyone,” Jankowski said. “We’re not backing down. We see who’s across the ice there and we’re not backing down from anyone. We believe in this group, no matter who we’re playing against.”
The Hurricanes dropped to 50-19-9.
“In this league, when you’re down two, it’s not easy no matter who you are playing against,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “They did a good job of really just blocking shots and getting in lanes and really battling. They looked like they were more desperate than us. It’s pretty obvious and they got the two points.”
Carolina is just one point ahead of the New Jersey Devils at the top of the Metro Division.
“To see some guys going to the net, it’s never a bad idea to put some pucks at [Andersen’s] feet,” McCarron said. “Slings from the corner were one of the things we talked about before the game because they’re man on man, and guys can get lost in the net front. It just so happened that it went in for me tonight.”
Dante Fabbro hit an empty-net goal with under three minutes left in the game for a the 3-0 final.
“It’s going to be a great road trip,” Jankowski said. “It’s a lot of fun. We play in a lot of good, important meaningful games. It’s obviously no different with these two coming up.”
Frederik Andersen made 20 saves in the Canes loss.
“We fought hard to kind of get back in the game and … I know it’s a goalie interference,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It didn’t impact the play. I mean, he didn’t see it anyway, but, you know, it’s one of those that’s the rule. So tough, tough night.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.