In Nashville, the Predators hosted the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night. The old adage is, don’t get mad, get even. Even is in the rear view mirror for the Predators who were shut out of The Sphere on The Strip prior to going on a long point streak.
On Tuesday night, the Preds trailed 3-0 after the first 20 minutes, and 4-1 in the middle frame. They then reeled off four unanswered goals for a 5-4 win in extra time.
The win leaves the Predators with a points streak of 18 games, 16-0-2.
Maybe they should have been allowed into The Sphere?
Roman Josi hit for the game winner with 40 seconds gone in the extra session.
“I thought I had a bit of a gap to the forward who was covering me,” Josi said . “It felt like I had a step on him. I just felt like I could take it to the net, so I just took it to the net and I think it bounced off my stick once and I got it back.”
Juuse Saros made 31 saves in the win.
Nashville improved to 43-25-4, and have not lost in regulation since mid February.
“There’s a lot of belief,” Josi said. “There’s a lot of confidence in this room. Like I said before, there’s a lot of trust in our game. We trust ourselves that we can play a really good game. We’re not going to have it every night but I think we showed, especially in the last couple of games, there’s times where we maybe didn’t have it as much but we found a way to get it back. That was the same thing tonight. I think that’s the sign of a really good team.”
Vegas came out strong in the opening stanza, taking a 3+-0 lead.
Ivan Barbashev opened the scoring at at 2:45, for a 1-0 lead to Vegas, scoring off a rush into the Nashville zone.
“That’s what it felt like, like a playoff game,” Barbashev said. “A lot of physicality out there, a lot of chances. The goalies were really good today, too. They got to feed off their fans probably tonight after scoring a couple of goals in the third. It’s just how it went.”
Brett Howden padded the lead at 5:08, scoring off a shot from the slot for a 2-0 advantage.
Shea Theodore stretched the lead to 3-0 at 16:43, scoring off a wrister.
Vegas dropped to 42-25-5.
In the middle frame, Mark Jankowski trimmed the deficit to 3-1 on a marker at 14:33, scoring off a shot from the right circle.
William Karlsson responded for Vegas at 19:03, scoring off an odd man rush for a 4-1 lead headed to the third period.
“It’s not the end of the world,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You’re going to have those nights. But we’ve been building in the right direction. We’ve been a lot closer to our game, and I thought we did a lot things well. I actually thought in the third, I think they scored on all of their chances, to be honest with you. I mean, they had more in the first period I believe than the third. They just happened to find a way to get the goals to go in.”
In the third, the Predators scored three unanswered goals to tie the game, and force the extra session.
Ryan O’Reilly started the rally when he closed the gap to 4-2 at 5:52, scoring from the slot.
Filip Forsberg trimmed the deficit to one at 4-3, with a strike at 12:17, scoring off a rebound.
“We’ve built a reputation on our third periods here lately,” Forsberg said. “Most of them have been kind of pulling away when we have the lead going in or tying it up or whatever, going quick. This one was a little tougher of a challenge going into it, but the boys answered the bell.”
Gustav Nyquist completed the regulation rally with a goal at 12:57, hitting off a power play.
Jiri Patera made 30 saves in the loss.
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