Newark, NJ – The Nashville Predators make it two in a row with a hard earned victory over the New Jersey Devils tonight, 6-5 at the Prudential Center.
The win gives Nashville the much needed two points as they try to claw their way into the playoff picture, as they now find themselves just two points out of the hunt.
It was a game that produced a lot of scoring on both ends of the ice.
Nashville opened the scoring just 42 seconds into the contest, when Mattias Ekholm drilled a slap shot from the point that beat Mackenzie Blackwood in net for the Devils, and the Predators were off to a quick start, 1-0.
Pavel Zacha tied the game at 4:54 with a short handed goal, but Filip Forsberg would score his first of two goals tonight at 8:17 to give the Predators the 2-1 lead.
Into the second period and it was Zacha again at 8:44 to tie it for the Devils at 2-2. Then Nikita Gusev would give Jersey the lead with a power play “wrister” for the 3-2 Devils lead.
Nick Bonino would bring Nashville back even at 12:48 on a wrist shot to draw even, 3-3, but just like that, Jesper Bratt tossed the puck into the open net off of a pass from Kyle Palmieri and New Jersey retook the lead, 4-3.
The action picked up in the third period, if you can believe that, when Matt Duchene opened the period just 33 seconds in with his wrist shot and Nashville had tied things up at 4-4.
Fans could hardly catch their breath when the Devils scored again at 6:37 on John Hayden’s snap shot that beat Rinne and the Devils were back in front, 5-4.
That’s when your top tier stars are supposed to “step up” and here comes Filip Forsberg for the Predators. Forsberg ripped a wicked wrist shot to the top shelf on a power play to tie the game, 5-5.
Time would run out and the two teams would head to the overtime, where neither team could score, setting up a shoot-out.
Filip Forsberg started the scoring, but Nikita Gusev would answer for the 1-1 start.
Matt Duchene would give Nashville a 2-1 edge and that would be the game winner. Jack Hughes for New Jersey failed to score as did Ryan Johansen and Kyle Palmieri for Jersey, and the Predators picked up the valuable extra point.
Nashville will return home for a match-up against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night at the Bridgestone Arena. Puck drops at 7:00pm.
