In Nashville Friday night, the stage was set for a patented rally for the Chicago Blackhawks; they trailed 3-2 heading to the third and needed only a little magic from their stars to send the Predators to a second straight, heartbreaking defeat.
However, the Preds used a three-goal outburst in a span of 2:19 to break the game open and even their series at one.
Craig Smith had two goals and three points on the night.
“It’s big,” Smith said. “You can see it as a result of our hard work, and just stayed with it. Pressuring pucks and creating turnovers and just legging it shift to shift. We were persistent, and good things are going to happen.”
Smith, Filip Forsberg and Mike Santorelli scored in this third period for Nashville.
“It was huge,” Smith said. “You can shoot a whole day for what felt like a couple games and not really see many chances or things go in. I thought our line did a great job, especially defense, of jumping into the play and getting pucks on the net, because that helps us out when we’re there.”
Corey Crawford took the loss and has allowed nine goals in just four periods of play so far.
“It was one of those nights where pucks were going in on [Crawford],” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “I think it was later in the game when we probably could’ve pulled him, but when it’s that deep in the game, we left him in there. He’s bounced back and he’s come in after some ordinary performances and got his confidence and solidified our team game and his own game.”
Pekka Rinne had 24 saves and an assist in win over Hawks – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Pekka Rinne had 24 saves and an assist in the win.
Roman Josi gave the Predators a 2-1 lead heading to the first intermission on a goal with four seconds left on the clock.
“He picked up the puck in our end with only less than 10 seconds on the clock, thinking the period is probably just going to run out, but Roman has carried the puck so many times for us this year and gotten through the neutral zone,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “But even then, with less than six seconds on the entry, to cut it across the ice and find a little bit of wiggle room to get a shot off, [Santorelli] made a nice screen in front of the net. That was a big moment in the game as well.”
Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane scored for Chicago.
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