Doom and gloom was the order of the day Friday when Pekka Rinne went down with an injury in the Nashville Predators’ last game.
But Saturday night saw Juuse Saros made 31 saves in a 3-0 shutout of the Edmonton Oilers.
He made 18 stops in the third period to get the win.
“We knew before the game they had lots of talent, so we had to be solid in the defensive zone,” Saros said. “I think we were that today and our penalty kill was really great too.”
P.K. Subban, Viktor Arvidsson and Roman Josi had the Preds’ strikes in the win.
“People talk about our ability to jump in the rush and generate offense, but we take pride in trying to make it as easy as we can on our goaltenders,” Subban said. “It’s tough to play against us when we’re moving our feet and getting backs to puck.”
The Nashville defense clamped down on the Oilers and except for a few quality shots in the third period, Saros had clear vision of the attempts all night.
“I thought we played a pretty hard, solid game, not enough offense, but we checked, we skated, we battled, we had a better start,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “The two-minute phase in the second period really hurt us. I didn’t think our power play was quite as sharp either. We were the best penalty killers on the ice. In most situations, we killed a lot of our own plays until the last one where we had some chances.”
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Oilers highlights]
Cam Talbot made 25 saves for the Oilers in the loss.
“Our sharpness want there,” Oilers forward Milan Lucic said. “Our effort was there and our legs were going, but maybe we were over stickhandling. The sharpness on the tape-to-tape passes wasn’t there today. I thought our effort was pretty good, but sometimes good isn’t good enough, especially against the elite teams in the League.”
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