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Nashville Predators get first win of the season against Minnesota Wild 3-1

January 22, 2013 | Print This Post
 

Nashville PredatorsSt. Paul, MN – The play of the game Tuesday night was Martin Erat’s goal with 8:15 left to play in the third period. The Nashville Predators went on to beat the Minnesota Wild 3-1 at the Xcel Energy Center.

A pass in the Predators zone was deflected down the rink and Erat took off after it. Wild’s goaltender Niklas Backstrom hesitated before coming out from the net to retrieve the puck. However, he miscued and skated into the puck. Erat retrieved the puck and sent it into the empty net. His goal put the predators up 2-1. The game had been tied 1-1 since the first period.

Minnesota’s Dany Heatley scored the games first goal when he hit a shot that deflected off Nashville’s defenseman Kevin Klein’s glove and then past goaltender Chris Mason at the 6:02 mark of the first quarter. The Predators came back at 16:31 when Klein got the loose puck at the blue line, sent a shot to the net that deflected right to Nick Spaling who hit a wrist shot past Backstrom.

Spaling has five goals in nine career games against the Wild. He has 14 total goals in 173 games against the rest of the NHL.

Late in the third, Minnesota’s Pierre-Marc Bouchard is called for slashing against Mike Fisher with 0.24 seconds left in the game giving the Predators a power play. Desperate for a goal, the Wild tried to push the puck, but Nick Spaling got the puck sending it to David Legwand. Legwand hit a snap shot into the net giving the Predators an insurance goal with 0.17 seconds left.

At times during the game, both teams looked out of sync. However, as the game progressed into the second period, the Predators seemed to shake off some rust to get things going. From then on, the Predators just got stronger it seemed as the game went on.

Tonight’s contest marked the first time a game between the Wild and Predators wasn’t decided by one goal in five games. All four of last season’s matchups were decided by one goal.

Nashville goaltender Chris Mason made 29 saves to earn the win in his first start of the season and move to 7-5-2 against the Wild.

Minnesota’s goaltender Niklas Backstrom made 23 saves to earn his first loss of the season.

The Nashville Predators now travel to St. Louis for a Thursday, January 24th game against the Blues. The puck hits the ice at 7:00pm.

Box Score

Tuesday, January 22, 2013
FINAL
Predators 3 – 1 Wild

Final 1 2 3 T
Nashville Predators 1 0 2 3
Minnesota Wild 1 0 0 1

Scoring Summary

1st Period
06:02 MIN Dany Heatley (3) [GOALS_807] – Assists: Z. Parise (3) & C. Stoner (1)
16:31 NSH Nick Spaling (1) Wrist Shot – Assists: K. Klein (1) & B. Yip (1)
2nd Period
none
3rd Period
11:45 NSH Martin Erat (2) Backhand – Assists: none
19:43 NSH PPG – David Legwand (1) Snap Shot – Assists: N. Spaling (1)

 

Penalty Summary

1st Period
02:18 MIN Zenon Konopka : Fighting (maj) – 5 min
02:18 NSH Rich Clune : Fighting (maj) – 5 min
12:16 NSH Nick Spaling : Tripping – 2 min
19:55 NSH Patric Hornqvist : Roughing – 2 min
19:55 MIN Mikko Koivu : Roughing – 2 min
2nd Period
03:43 MIN Darroll Powe : Interference – 2 min
04:03 NSH Shea Weber : Interference – 2 min
09:19 MIN Justin Falk : Interference – 2 min
19:17 NSH Brandon Yip : Roughing – 2 min
3rd Period
09:47 NSH Patric Hornqvist : Interference on goalkeeper – 2 min
09:47 MIN Cal Clutterbuck : Hooking – 2 min
19:36 MIN Pierre-Marc Bouchard : Slashing – 2 min

Shots on Goal

1st 2nd 3rd T
Nashville Predators 5 10 11 26
Minnesota Wild 12 7 11 30

  Saves

Goalies EV PP SH Total Sv% TOI
Nashville Predators 30 C. Mason (W) 23 – 24 6 – 6 0 – 0 29 – 30 0.967 60:00
Minnesota Wild 32 N. Backstrom (L) 21 – 23 2 – 3 0 – 0 23 – 26 0.885 59:24

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