Ottawa Ontario, Canada – The Nashville Predators made a valiant effort to dig themselves out of a three-goal deficit tonight, only to lose in overtime against the Ottawa Senators, 4-3.
The Predators found themselves trailing 3-0 after the first period of play, causing coach Peter Laviolette to pull Pekka Rinne from goal to begin the second period.
The move sent a strong message to his team that he wasn’t happy with their lazy play of the opening frame.
Maxime Lajoie got the Senators on the board first at 2:25 of the first period when his shot from the point trickled past Rinne for the early 1-0 lead.
Brady Tkachuk then took a pass from Mark Stone across the crease for the easy tap in at 5:22 of the first, and suddenly Ottawa had a 2-0 lead.
The Senators kept the pressure on the Predators for the entire first period, catching Nashville out of position and exposing their goalie to the Ottawa onslaught.
Then at 19:48 of the first period, just as the teams were getting ready for the first intermission, Ryan Dzingel sliced through the porous Predators defense, and flipped a shot over the shoulder of Rinne and suddenly the rout was on. Ottawa took a 3-0 lead into the locker room.
When the teams returned to the ice for the second period, Pekka Rinne was benched, and Juuse Saros took his place in net. Nashville was a different team during this period.
“The” captain, Roman Josi finally put the Predators on the board at 5:37 of the second period, when he found a rebound in the circle and fired a shot past Ottawa goaltender, Craig Anderson, and Nashville was finally on the scoreboard. The power play goal made the score, 3-1.
Nashville dominated the second period but were unable to close the gap any further, and the period ended with Ottawa leading Nashville, 3-1.
To start the third period, Nashville came out with guns blazing. Craig Smith took a pass from Roman Josi just 46 seconds into the period and ripped a shot past Anderson and suddenly the Predators were within a goal of the Senators, 3-2.
Nashville continued their attack on the Senators, trying to even the score when at 6:56 of the final period, Josi scored his second goal of the game when his pass toward the front of the net was deflected into the net and suddenly we had a new game, tied 3-3.
The score came just 21 seconds into the extra period.
While the final score was a let down, the Predators managed to come away with a point on the night. The Predators will travel to Chicago and play the Blackhawks tomorrow night. Puck drops at 7:30.
