Edmonton Alberta, Canada – The Nashville Predators saw one slip away tonight against the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2.
Some questionable officiating late in the game put Nashville’s back against the wall against the number one power play in the league, and the Oilers took full advantage.
Craig Smith got the Predators off to a great start, scoring at 12:17 of the first period, scoring on the backhand from the slot as he picked up the loose puck for the score. Nashville took a 1-0 lead.
Then, with just 9 seconds remaining in the second period, a fluke play would draw the Oilers to within a goal, when a defected shot would rebound off of the skate of Nashville’s Kyle Turris and into the net past Juuse Saros, and just like that, the Oilers were within a goal, 2-1.
That goal would prove to give Edmonton some momentum heading into the final period, but some questionable calls against the Predators would give Edmonton the advantage going into the third period.
At 3:42 of the third, Leon Draisaitl took a pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, then fired a snap shot from the wide side past Saros,to tie the game, 2-2.
At11:13, Edmonton’s Connor McDavid was called for interference and the Predators should have gone on the power play, but then the officials called embellishment against Nashville’s Mikael Granlund, nullifying the man advantage.
Nashville head coach John Hines was none to happy at the call, but there would be another controversial call later in the period when Jarred Tinordi would be tagged for interference against Draisaitl at 12:45. The inconsistency of the call would be the controversy for the Predators.
At 13:02, it was Draisaitl again for the Oilers who would score to give Edmonton the lead, 3-2. The number one power play in the league didn’t disappoint the home crowd as Edmonton would forge ahead.
Nashville is still trying to work their way into the wild-card slot of the western conference, and a win tonight would have gone a long way towards that goal. Edmonton was three point ahead of Nashville before tonight, but gained some breathing room for the time being.
The Predators will travel to Vancouver on Monday night to complete the four game road trip, then return home to the Bridgestone Arena to host the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
